Surely, every borrower wants to know their total monthly mortgage payment month and how much cash they’ll need to bring at closing. Borrowers also want to know ahead of time how much the tax and insurance escrows will be since they have to pay several months in advance at the closing. Since the new GFE doesn’t provide this important information, lenders are filling in the gaps with their own custom made loan worksheets.

Some have complained that these worksheets are a work-around the new rules, but lenders have an obligation to provide borrowers with the full financial picture of the loan. The criticism is unfair, in my opinion, if the intent is to fill in the informational gap of what the GFE fails to provide.

The new GFE may be an overall improvement to the hodge-podge of good faith estimates previously used by lenders, but it’s certainly not the Messiah that HUD billed it out to be.

Rona's thoughts: What I am hearing from lenders is that using the new GFE will give consumers a chance to shop around for a loan; there is a built-in three-day waiting period before the appraisal can be ordered. Some savvy borrowers will use that time to shop around and be able to compare apples to apples. That sounds good. But the buyers can’t apply and get the true GFE until they have a specific Offer accepted, so they know the sale price. That means borrowers will be collecting and comparing GFE’s after their accepted Offer to Purchase, before their Purchase and Sales Agreement, and during their home inspection. I anticipate chaos!

Would-be buyers and borrowers, let’s talk tactics, OK?