Effective January 1, 2010 RESPA was reformed. Many of you have heard about RESPA Reform and have probably even been to a seminar or webinar to explain it. I wanted to take a few minutes to give you a little background on RESPA Reform.
First off what is RESPA? RESPA stands for the Real Estate Settlement and Procedures Act. RESPA Reform was enacted by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) with the intent to help protect borrowers applying for home financing by standardizing the industry. In doing this they feel that they have established a more thorough explanation and disclosure of loan terms and fees via the new Good Faith Estimate (GFE) and Settlement Statement (HUD-1). The Department of Housing and Urban Development set standards with the lenders that will only allow certain fees to change between the time of issuing the GFE and the time the borrower goes to closing. They feel that this change also allows a borrower to shop lenders and to be able to understand the differences that they are quoted.
Since this was just started January 1st, you may not have had the opportunity to see a new GFE or HUD-1. The way that the guideline is written the HUD-1 does not need to be the new revised HUD-1 until they are doing a closing that the new GFE was given to the borrower.
Advantage Mortgage Partners an affiliate of Wells Fargo has given us some great pamphlets that can help you do understand the revisions. Please feel free to pick one up at any of the RE/MAX Center locations.
For additional information on RESPA Reform feel free to contact Linda Stratton at 770-329-4175 or Roxanne Gaigelas at 770-797-7003.
