Application Fee

The application fee is the non-refundable charge that a lender might choose to assess in order to process a mortgage application. This fee is charged in order to pay for the administrative costs associated with doing a background check on the applicant. It also might go toward the overhead costs of facilitating the application process. Though this fee is not charged by all mortgage lenders, the vast majority will have some sort of associated fee. An application fee is charged regardless of whether the applicant gets the loan. One of the purposes of this fee is to ensure that only serious borrowers seek out the money. Because of the cost involved in processing a loan application, mortgage lenders are interested in dealing with only those people who going to follow through on the loan. From the buyer's perspective, this is yet another fee that makes the home buying process expensive.