Two 19-year-olds I worked with, friends since elementary school, bought a $450,000 home together. Their total cash out of pocket to get the keys was $400. That is not a typo.
The upfront cost of buying a home in Utah is the most misunderstood part of the process. Not because the fees are hidden, but because no one sits first-time buyers down and walks through what the real math looks like. So let me do that now.
This is your full guide to every upfront cost you will touch, from the day you go under contract to the day you close. I'll show you how the numbers shift across FHA, VA, and conventional loans, and we will come back to those two 19-year-olds at the end.
Down Payment
The biggest myth I run into on the Wasatch Front is that you need 20% down to buy a house. You do not. Here is what you actually need, by loan type, on a $450,000 example home.
- Conventional: 3% minimum ($13,500) for most first-time buyers, 5% ($22,500) for everyone else.
- FHA: 3.5% minimum ($15,750) with a 580 credit score or higher.
- VA: $0 down for qualified veterans, active duty service members, and eligible surviving spouses.
- USDA: $0 down for homes in USDA-eligible rural areas. Most of the metro Wasatch Front does not qualify, but plenty of pockets outside the major corridors do.
20% down is not a requirement. It is a tradeoff. Put 20% down and you skip PMI (private mortgage insurance). Put less and you pay PMI monthly until you hit 20% equity. Neither is right or wrong. It depends on whether you'd rather put the cash in the house or keep it liquid.
Down Payment Assistance in Utah
You do not have to come up with every dollar of your down payment assistance yourself. Utah has some of the better DPA options in the country, and most first-time buyers I work with do not realize they qualify.
Utah Housing Corporation (UHC) is the main statewide program. They offer home loans paired with built-in down payment assistance as a second mortgage. Terms update regularly, so check the current program details before you plan around them.
Repayable DPA programs. These are second mortgages you pay back monthly alongside your main loan. This is how my two 19-year-olds got into their house. They qualified on income but hadn't had time to save a down payment yet, so we used a repayable DPA to cover the down payment. Then I negotiated $21,000 in seller concessions to cover their closing costs and buy their interest rate down. They brought $1,200 in earnest money to the closing table and walked out with $800 of it back. Total cash out of pocket: $400. They bought a $450,000 asset for $400 on closing day.
Grants and forgivable loans. Some Utah cities and counties offer down payment help that does not have to be repaid, or that is forgiven if you stay in the home long enough. These programs come and go and are usually income-limited, so check what's available in your city or county when you're ready to buy.
Gift funds. If a family member wants to help, most loan programs allow gift funds for your down payment. Your lender will walk you through the paperwork.
The amount of cash you bring to closing is almost never the headline down payment number. Between DPA, seller concessions, and loan programs with built-in assistance, most Utah buyers have options they have never heard of.
Earnest Money
Earnest money is the deposit you put down when you go under contract. It tells the seller "I'm serious, I'm not shopping three houses at once." In Utah, the latest market value for earnest money is 1% of the purchase price, so on a $450,000 home in Draper you're looking at $4,500. In a buyer's market, you could go lower than 1%, sometimes significantly. In a seller's market, you may have to cough up more than 1% to be competitive.
It is not an extra fee. Earnest money gets credited back to you at closing and applied toward your down payment or closing costs.
Here's the part nobody explains clearly. If you walk away for a reason not protected by your contract, you lose that money. This is the single biggest way first-time buyers get burned in Utah, and protecting your earnest money is one of the things I care about most as an agent.
Here are the two deadlines that protect your earnest money:
- The due diligence deadline. This is about a two-week period from the time you go under contract to when your earnest money goes non-refundable for an inspection or due diligence reason. This is your time to run your homework on the home. If the inspection comes back with major concerns and the seller isn't willing to fix it, you can back out and get your full deposit back.
- The finance and appraisal deadline. This deadline is three weeks from when you go under contract. If the appraisal comes back under the current contract price and we can't come to terms, you can back out and get your earnest money. Same thing if your financing goes awry and you can no longer qualify before the finance and appraisal deadline. You can back out for a finance reason.
Should both deadlines pass, your earnest money is officially nonrefundable. You can still back out of the contract, but your earnest money now belongs to the seller.
The deadlines in the Utah REPC (Real Estate Purchase Contract) are negotiable in ways most buyers never find out.
Home Inspection
A standard home inspection in Utah runs $350 to $550. You pay the inspector directly, usually within a few days of going under contract, and that cost does not come back to you.
I tell every client to add specialty inspections on top of the main one when the house calls for it. A sewer scope runs $150 to $250 and can save you from a five-figure repair bill, especially on older homes. A radon test is free in Utah, where radon levels are among the highest in the country. Meth and mold tests each run $100 to $200 on top of the main inspection and are highly recommended when the home's history or condition raises a flag.
Agent's Note
Skipping inspections to save a few hundred dollars is the most expensive decision you can make on the buy side.
Appraisal
The appraisal is required by your lender, not your choice. Expect $550 to $800 in Utah depending on the loan type and property, and you usually pay it upfront once the lender orders it.
The appraiser is confirming the home is worth what you agreed to pay. If it comes in low, that opens up a negotiation with the seller or can trigger a contingency in your contract.
An appraisal coming in low is not automatically a deal killer, but how your contract is written decides whether it costs you money or saves you money. Even if the deal falls apart after the appraisal, the appraiser still gets paid.
Lending Fees
This is where most of the sticker shock shows up, so stay with me. Your lender will charge a mix of the fees below, and the exact numbers vary by lender.
- Origination fee: Usually 0.5% to 1% of your loan amount. On a $400,000 loan, that is $2,000 to $4,000.
- Underwriting, processing, and credit report fees: Typically $500 to $1,200 combined.
- Prepaids: Your first chunk of homeowners insurance (often a full year upfront), property tax escrow, and prepaid interest from closing to your first payment. On most Wasatch Front homes, budget $3,000 to $6,000 here depending on the property tax rate.
- Discount points (optional): Each point is 1% of your loan and buys your rate down by roughly 0.25%. Whether to buy points is a math problem, not a gut feeling, and it depends on how long you plan to stay in the home.
Rule of Thumb
On a typical Wasatch Front purchase, expect 2% to 3% of your loan amount in combined lender fees and prepaids.
Title Fees
Title fees cover the title search, the settlement, and title insurance. In Utah, the two sides usually agree on which title company handles the closing.
Lender's title insurance is required and scales with your loan amount. Owner's title insurance is optional, but I push hard for every client to get it, because it is a one-time payment that protects you for as long as you own the home.
Don't Skip This
Settlement, recording, and notary fees add another $400 to $900. Owner's title insurance is the cheapest long-term protection you will buy in this whole transaction, and it is the one people most often skip to save a few hundred dollars. Do not skip it.
Real Estate Agent and Transaction Fees
The NAR settlement changed how buyer's agent compensation works in 2024, so this is worth paying attention to. Buyer's agent compensation is now openly negotiable. In most Utah transactions, the seller is still offering to cover some or all of it, but that is no longer automatic and has to be addressed upfront in your offer.
Buyer's agents on the Wasatch Front typically earn 2.5% to 3% of the purchase price, though everything is negotiable now. My team handles this transparently from the first conversation, so you know what you're paying and what you're getting before you ever sign anything.
Most brokerages also charge a transaction or admin fee, usually $300 to $500, on top of commission. That is a flat fee, not a percentage, and it will show up on your settlement statement.
Closing Costs by Loan Type: FHA, VA, and Conventional
Here is where the loan type actually changes your upfront math. Let's use a $450,000 home as the working example, because that is close to the median price across much of the Wasatch Front right now.
Conventional
Down payment: 3% to 20% (so $13,500 to $90,000 on a $450,000 home).
PMI is paid monthly if you put less than 20% down. There is no upfront mortgage insurance fee with a conventional loan. Total closing costs usually run 2% to 4% of the loan amount.
Conventional
Gives you the most flexibility and no upfront mortgage insurance, but you'll pay PMI monthly until you hit 20% equity.
FHA
Down payment: 3.5% minimum ($15,750 on a $450,000 home) with a 580 credit score or higher.
Upfront Mortgage Insurance Premium (UFMIP) is 1.75% of your loan amount — about $7,600 on a $434,250 FHA loan — and it is usually rolled into the loan rather than paid in cash. You'll also pay monthly MIP on top of your regular payment for the life of most FHA loans. The home has to meet FHA property standards, which means some fixer-uppers won't qualify. FHA is built for buyers with lower credit scores or limited savings, and the tradeoff is mortgage insurance that sticks around for the life of the loan in most cases.
VA
Down payment: $0 for qualified veterans, active duty service members, and eligible surviving spouses.
There is no PMI on a VA loan, ever. The VA Funding Fee runs 1.25% to 3.3% of the loan depending on your service history and down payment amount, and it is usually rolled into the loan. Veterans with a service-connected disability rating have the funding fee waived entirely. If you qualify for VA, it is almost always the strongest loan product available.
I helped a single mom use her VA benefit to buy with $0 down. The home she wanted was not on the VA-approved list, so we had to chase down a spot approval from the VA, which is a process most buyers do not know is even possible. It took 45 days of follow-up and a lot of grit. She brought $3,000 to the closing table for the portion of closing costs her seller did not cover. She is in her home.
So What Does It All Add Up To?
Let's put it together for a $450,000 home on the Wasatch Front, with a buyer putting 5% down on a conventional loan.
- Down payment: $22,500
- Inspection plus specialty inspections: about $700
- Appraisal: about $650
- Combined lender fees, title fees, prepaids, and transaction fee: roughly $10,000 to $14,000
Budget for This
Plan for 7% to 9% of the purchase price in total upfront cash on a low down payment conventional loan. FHA lands in a similar range. VA can run far lower.
The Thing Most Buyers Miss
A lot of these costs are negotiable with the seller. Seller-paid closing costs, also called concessions, are something I negotiate concessions on almost every deal I write for my clients. In the right market, I have gotten $20,000 or more in concessions for buyers, which can cover most of the cash you need outside of your down payment.
That $21,000 I negotiated for my two 19-year-olds? That is what turned a $450,000 purchase into a $400 day. Concessions are not a rare hack. They are what good buyer's agents fight for on every deal.
That is the work I care about most. Not just getting you into a house, but getting you in with your savings intact.
Let's Make Your Numbers Real
If you're reading this and doing the math in your head, let's make it concrete. I have lender affiliates who can help us do a soft pull on your credit and see what your personal numbers look like. Let me build you a real upfront cost estimate — I answer every message myself.