The New Good Faith Estimate - Welcome to 2010!

Okay, our wonderful Government just instituted a new Good Faith Estimate that all brokers and banks have to begin using as of 1/1/2010.  This estimate is supposed to help take any confusion out of the consumers mind and help them better compare one lender with another.  Hmmmm!  Not so sure that it will work.  Basically it lumps all the fees into one and holds the broker or lender to tolerance levels.  If the fees are more than 10% of what was quoted, the broker/lender will have to eat it.  They are making us quote fees that we have no control over, like escrow, title, etc., but we are still liably.  Okay, so this is what our government wants.  We also were told not to issue a good faith estimate unless we have all six of the following items:  borrower name, social security, loan amount, property address, income and value of the property.  So don't expect to get a written good faith estimate if you are just looking for a pre-approval without a property.  We can tell you or give you something in writing that will give you a rough estimate of the closing costs, but we can't give you an actual good faith until all 6 of those items have been given.

2010 looks to be an interesting year for the mortgage industry.  Loans may take a bit longer at closing because escrow companies are required to rectify any tolerances over that 10% mark and that could delay closing.  For more information on this topic, please contact me at 661.964.2600 or email me at jeff@somloan.com.

Jeff Eisenberg
Southern Oaks Mortgage, Inc.
http://www.somloans.com/
http://www.loanmanjeff.com/
www.twitter.com/loanmanjeff