The Good Faith Estimate Proclamation
The Good Faith Estimate (GFE) is a standardized form that is used across the mortgage industry when applying for a new home loan, that allows borrows to compare costs between lenders (we will get to the juicy part in a minute).
This document includes an itemized listing of all approximate amounts due at the closing of a mortgage. This includes monthly mortgage payments. The other fees included are closing fees, charges for attorneys, title search, recording and document stamps or taxes, survey fees, and other associated costs. These are all of the fun little things buyers have to pay for during a closing. They are normally the same fees across lenders, but prices can differ. With the election this year and the pandemic, things have changed…
LET’S GET IT ON!
Real-life example: I was working with a client, who was a questioner. I mean this in a good way… she questioned everything, and I do mean E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G. Which was great! I got to answer all of her questions, and if I did not know the answer, I knew that I had a team that would help me find the answer. It was almost like going back to school and having students what you learned forever ago. But I had a good time with it. Now she was a shopper as well. She would shop for the best deals on anything and everything. She would go to Publix to get her milk, then to Aldi to get strawberries, then to Walmart to get other fruits if she wanted to make a fruit smoothie. She would haggle and it paid off several times. Her mantra, “the worst they can say is no.”
Needless to say, she shopped around for a loan. She spoke with 7 different lenders in the first week of us looking for a home. She spoke to 4 more the following week. Then she decided to go with the 1st one she spoke with because he offered the lowest fees out of all of them. That’s great for her! The hard pulls on her credit didn’t help much, but it only lowered about 12 points, nothing alarming in her case.
So here we are, 2 weeks from closing, and she spoke to another loan officer, and I get a phone call. It was the new loan officer asking a few questions. I was confused because she seemed happy with the first guy, but he was not lowering down one 1 item, which was a misc. closing fee that was there just in case something came up. He assured her she would get the money back if it was not needed, but she did not like it being there, staring her in the face, mocking her. So she got a new guy, the new guy matched the quote she received at the beginning of this transaction, and then took the misc. fee off. He won the deal and she closed with him.
THIS was a prime example of why GFE’s are important and they should be looked over by ANY buyer out there. Just remember, “the worst they can say is no.”
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Matt Schnitker is a Realtor® in Orlando, Florida with BEX Realty. I'm a proud husband and father of two, self-professed tech nerd, and bona fide food fanatic. My wife and I are both Real Estate nerds and we love looking at Real Estate, so of course, we got into the business together. 😆
If you have any questions or would like some more information on anything you see in my videos (or anything else) please email me at matts@BEXRealty.com or call my team at 407.415.1015
We have a website with tons of blogs and videos and you can search for homes for sale: www.SoldBySchnitker.com
Keep smiling :)