Good News! Good Faith Estimate Changes in 2010

Posted by The Atlantic Real Estate Team on Tuesday, January 19th, 2010 at 1:41pm.

All too often, a buyer has shown up to closing to be suprised by higher closing costs than their lender intially informed them of. Fortunately, effective January 1st, the Department of Housing and Urban Development communicated new rules designed to prevent these last-minute closing surprises that we wanted to share with you.

The requirements of the improved good faith estimate a lender issues includes the following:

  1. Lenders are now required to issue a uniform three page document within 72 hours after you apply for a loan
  2. Lenders must disclose if any costs will increase such as with an adjustable rate mortgage, balloon payments, or penalties for paying off a loan early
  3. A new table in the good faith estimate will allow you to compare different interest rates and settlement charges and how they affect your monthly payments
  4. Lenders may not increase costs they control, such as origination and processing fees
  5. Additionally, fees for services such as appraisals and title insurance can increase no more than 10% from those provided in the good faith estimate if you use the lender selected providers 

If you would like more information, contact us and we will be happy to provide you with a Settlement Cost Booklet to learn more!


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