Whether you are a home buyer or seller, the closing costs are a major expense to anticipate. However, if you are short of cash, please remember everything is negotiable, especially closing costs.

For example, if you are the buyer, give the seller a good purchase offer in return for the seller crediting you, perhaps, $5,000 toward nonrecurring closing costs, such as the mortgage loan fee.

As a rough guideline, home buyer closing costs will be about 4 percent of the home's sales price. If you are the home seller, expect the selling costs to be about 9 percent of the sales price, including the real estate sales commission.