What is a Loan Estimate and Closing Disclosure: What Every Borrower Should Know

Loan Estimate and Closing DisclosuresWhen you apply for a mortgage, two documents do most of the heavy lifting when it comes to understanding your loan: the Loan Estimate and the Closing Disclosure. Both were introduced in 2015 under federal rules designed to make mortgage costs easier to understand and compare — and they replaced the old Good Faith Estimate and HUD-1 Settlement Statement.

Here’s what each one is, when you’ll receive it, and what to pay attention to. [Read more…]

Before You Go to Your Signing Appointment [Updated]

This will be the third version of this post since I started writing The Mortgage Porter in late 2009. Things have overall changed for the better for consumers when it comes to the closing procedure. Last month, two new disclosures, the Loan Estimate and Closing Disclosure, were introduced replacing the Good Faith Estimate and HUD-1 Settlement Statement effective for loan applications dated October 3, 2015 and after. This post applies to loans originated after October 3, 2015. If your loan application is dated prior to October 3, 2015, you should refer to this post instead.

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