Housing and Urban Development (HUD) regulators are always trying to make things better and more transparent for borrowers. This time they have made some major changes in the Good Faith Estimate, a backbone of the mortgage industry. These changes will be taking place January 1, 2010 and are some very major changes that are designed to help consumers compare loans from one lender to another. Very major changes but unfortunately, we still don’t know what all of them are or how they are being interpreted because HUD hasn’t released the final information yet. This is something that will have a direct bearing on your Real Estate transactions in the Eugene/Springfield Oregon area and is supposed to make shopping for a mortgage easier, but will it? The new Good Faith Estimate (GFE) is nearly written in stone. There are many parts of it that cannot be changed once given to a consumer unless there are “Changed Circumstance.” These include, Act of God, war, disaster or other emergency, inaccurate information provided by the borrower, changed information such as loan amount or property value and interest rate change due to rate lock. What this means is that you won’t be able to get GFEs from several different lenders to compare when first shopping for a loan, because they won’t give them out without a full application and property. So, where is the shopping here. Also, you have 10 days to “shop” after getting a GFE and if you are doing that, the lender will not be proceeding with the loan during that period since they won’t have a commitment from the borrower, thereby delaying the process.

Original Source New Good Faith Estimate debuts Jan. 1, 2010