Did GFE and HUD-1 changes end the world?
Here we are, into the June, and I can’t tell the difference. To be fair, I am not a rockstar with a gazillion transactions to sift through but my little piece of anecdotal evidence is that the home buyer experience is no different from before. People who were prone to shop for loans to shave that last 1/8th point off their rate are still going to shop. Now, they just have a more level playing field on which to shop. The home buyer who trusts their loan officer or trusts the their Realtor to make a decent referral are going to stick with the original loan officer. There’s plenty of other stuff going on without having to worry about shopping for loans, too.
What buyers really hear
The home buyer at the settlement table still puts on their “thoughtful and interested” face while the HUD-1 is being reviewed by settlement attorney or settlement officer. My guess, though, is that what they really hear is “Blah, blah, blah, yadda, yadda, yadda — we need your cashier’s check for $30,805.67”. No one at any of the settlements I’ve been to since January has looked at the new Page 3. It probably doesn’t matter because the lenders are now being more careful about the “tolerance”.
What I’m getting at here, is that, all the hoopla to the contrary, the new GFE and HUD-1 may have actually been a good thing. It put the Fear of Government, if not the Fear of God, into lenders and title companies to be a bit more honest. Yet, to the home buyer, it hasn’t created any sort of wild and crazy behavior change.
I’m wondering about the experience of others. Has the new GFE and HUD-1 made a difference? Positive or negative?
