Mrs. Satyagrahi and I are shopping for a home loan and have tried to do our homework. We’ve read through a few books, we’ve researched online. The books and general info online tell us that, when comparison shopping for a loan, the first question to ask is "Are you willing to provide a Good Faith Estimate?
The GFE is a document intended to clearly state the rates, fees, and terms of a prospective loan in a standardized format so that a potential customer can compare what’s being promised. Here’s the blank form. (My apologies to those who don’t like pdf’s.)
As it happens, the form was changed in January of this year. It is now binding on the lender for some, not all, info. This was done to protect the customer, clearly.
Unfortunately, in practice, the lenders we’ve spoken to (mostly mortgage brokers, actually) refuse to provide a GFE until you actually submit a full, formal loan application…at which time, the GFE becomes rather pointless. Here’s an article from the Washington Post describing the situation.
So here, finally, are the bottom-line questions:
Are all the brokers we’ve spoken to scammers to some extent?
If we keep looking, are we likely to find one that complies with the intent of the law? If not, I suppose we should we give up and just go with the flow, hoping not to be screwed.
MODS: I’m rather hoping for a straightforward General Questions answer to this but, based on the conflicting reports we’ve been getting, it might be more appropriate in GD or IMHO. I’ll accept your judgment.