Good Faith Estimate

Shopping for a mortgage loan can be an extremely challenging process.  To help with this process, lenders are required to provide borrowers a document called the good faith estimate. The good faith estimate, often referred to as the GFE or estimate of closing costs is a useful tool that all consumers should obtain prior to making a loan commitment. This provides an outline of a lender or banks  closing fees, as well as an estimate of the third party closing costs.

 
Typical lenders fees including:

  • Underwriting Fees
  • Processing Fees
  • Discount Points
  • Loan Origination Fee
  • Credit Report Fees

A good faith estimate will also overview the estimate third party fees associated with a mortgage loan including:

 

  • Appraisal
  • Title insurance
  • Title company closing fees
  • Tax stamps
  • Attorney fees
  • Recording fees
  • Surveys
  • Notary charges

 

If you are comparison shopping it is important to find out how long the estimate you receive will be good for. Consumers may not be aware that mortgage rates and fees can change daily. You should also find out if the mortgage loan you are applying for has a pre payment penalty and what items on the good faith estimate could potentially change depending on your credit score and home appraisal.

 

 Right

Rates, News & Advice Articles

June 13, 2011

The stock market tried to mount a rally on Monday, but finished the day relatively flat, a growing signal that the pessimism in the market may be around to stay for the summer. The DOW was up almost 100 points in early trading action as investors were looking to buy into some bargains from the sell... 

QRM Yet Another Federal Blunder In Fixing The Housing Market

QRM – Qualified Residential Mortgages is probably the dumbest idea the government has rolled out in the past 24 hours. An idea whose origination stems from the colossal collapse of the economy and U.S. housing markets would ensure the collapse of the American Real Estate Market. The simple economics... 

June 4, 2011

The continued decline in stock prices, weakness in housing and the employment markets over the past sixty days has very few silver linings. The one area that has benefitted from the market changes is the mortgage market, where fixed home mortgage rates have continued to improve. Loan rates dropped to... 

May 26, 2011

May has been a great month for the mortgage market as long term interest rates have moves substantially lower this month following a dip in bond yields. The ten year treasury bond move below 3.1 this week, over seventy basis points off of its high levels of the year. The correlation to fixed mortgage...