Man, can I paraphrase this and use it as my new signature here?
So long as the paraphrasing does not somehow become, “I am an asshat and I like to wear women’s dresses - SlyFrog,” be my guest. 
Thanks Cherry et al. Place an offer on a house. Sellers made counter offer which I accepted. Now I just have to schedule the numerous inspections (termites, radon, septic, etc) and get my mortgage! I got my official pre-approved notice in the mail and those who said a lending institution was involved are correct. A finance manager from the real estate company I am dealing with handled all of that.
Anybody wanna help me move? 
Honey, I just moved last week, so no, I don’t want to help. Let me tell you though I was a first time home buyer, put 20% down with a cashier’s check (“gift” from my mamma and the bank wanted a letter saying it was from her and no she did not expect me to pay it back), my mortgage got approved within 2 weeks, inspections went A.OK and the closing took less than an hour. Sometimes it all works out, and I wish the same for you.
One caveat about just about anything involving real estate closings – what is customary and what is legally required will vary significantly across U.S. jurisdictions (and often localities).
In New York (at least downstate), title insurance is customarily the obligation of the buyer, who has the option to purchase title insurance or not. Even where there is a lender that requires title insurance to cover its interest, the buyer can choose to forego title insurance covering his or her ownership interest.
And vetbridge, good luck on the purchase.
Gracias y felize cinco de mayo to y’all.
OP says he will be buying house “mostly for tax reasons”.
Absent mortgage interest, points, etc., many of the tax advantages of home “ownership” evaporate. You can still write off the property tax you pay, but that just means not paying 30% income tax on money you pay out 100% as another kind of tax.
Actually, “tax reasons” is sort of a rationalization. “Pride of ownership” is probably more accurate a reason. Having a place where I can build a bar-b-que sort of thing.
My closing is set for the 2nd week in July. Thanks again to all who have given advice and good wishes. A 25% down payment was all I did in cash. I avoided PMI (still do not know what that means. heh.
The home inspection/termite/radon/etc. was cool. The house passed, and the inspector taught me a good deal about things like furnace care and the like.
PMI is Private Mortgage Insurance, and protects the lender from a default in the loan. The thinking is, the less equity a borrower has in a home, the higher the reisk of default (most likely because of the thinking that there is little to lose if the house is foreclosed.) You can usually escape having to pay PMI by having more than 20% equity in the home, giving you more financial motivation for keeping current on your loan.
Ooooh, can I use that as my new signature? I don’t even have to paraphrase!
I kid, I kid.
I meant to add that PMI can benefit buyers (especially first time buyers) in that it offers more people an opportunity to buy a home with less cash down. Without PMI, fewer lenders would be willing to take the risk of lending to someone with a 5 or 10% down payment. With PMI, more people can buy homes despite not having a 20% downpayment.
UPDATE
Thanks to everyone who helped me out on this venture. I am closing 7/8/05. I put 25% down and everything has gone very smoothly.