New Good Faith Estimate Requirements For Ann Arbor Home Buyers
Friday, January 15, 2010
Tom Richardson, general counsel, of Liberty Title capsulated the points and process for the government 
mandated madness at the Ann Arbor City Club. I swear regulators don't talk to the grunts that do the jobs. Whatever happened to leadership by walking around?
Anyway there are some intricacies and maybe contract language changes that need to be in effect for the sales agreement with regard to closing costs credit.
Courtesy of Andy Chapelle of Crains: The big news: Liberty Title has developed a new online tool to help mortgage lenders make the accurate fee disclosures mandated by new federal regulations requiring good faith estimates of closing costs on real estate transactions.
Tom Richardson, general counsel and CEO at Liberty Title, says his company’s software is the first of its kind in Michigan.
Richardson said the new HUD rules and mandate for good faith estimates are a major revision to the federal Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act originally passed by Congress in 1974.
The act was created to prevent companies involved in buying and selling of real estate — lenders, realtors, construction companies and title insurance companies — from providing undisclosed kickbacks to each other.
Changes in the law will have a huge impact on the residential real estate market, Richardson said.
“They will definitely change how clients interact with their lenders and how the whole closing process is organized. We are pretty proud of our new application and are going to do presentations in Florida later this week and Atlanta later this month to try and sell it around the country,” he added.
“We have gotten rave reviews from our lender clients and already have 47 lenders signed up on our second day of our release,” he said.
“I will be showing the app to the Title Executives Council in Atlanta at the end of the month. This is a subgroup of our national trade group comprised of the top 55 of the title agents by revenue in the country. We think we can customize the software for other users for $3,000 to $5,000, now that we have created the basic architecture,” Richardson said.
“GFE QuickQuote will give lender’s the accurate information they need to quote title and closing charges, transfer taxes and recording fees to prospective borrowers,” said Michele Richardson, president of Liberty Title.
“Our guaranteed quotes, available in seconds, will give lenders the ability to quickly complete good faith estimates,” she said in a press release.
According to the press release, the new online system can be accessed by lenders through the company’s Web site at www.Libertytitle.com.
The software provides quotes of the lender’s title services, the owner’s title premiums, transfer taxes and recording charges on all types of residential mortgage transactions.
The system also gives lenders tax information for calculating escrow deposits required by the new regulations and assurances that they are making the compliance efforts required by the new federal regulations.
“The system will help them avoid costly refunds arising from inaccurate disclosures on good faith estimates,” Tom Richardson wrote.
And the custom software for the new system was developed locally by Ann Arbor-based Medhub Inc.
“GFE QuickQuote is the type of unique business software that is our specialty” said Peter Orr, CEO of Medhub. “We see great potential for licensing this software in other states.”
“MedHub did a great job of getting the coding done on a rush basis over the Christmas holiday when it became apparent that HUD would stick with its Jan. 1 implementation date even though the industry still had a million questions,” Tom Richardson said.
“We worked on this project for about five months after HUD released their first set of FAQ's to the public on the new regulations. The idea to create the app came as I was chatting with some lender clients who expressed a great deal of concern about their need to quickly get this information in a guaranteed format, 24/7,” he said.
He said Liberty Title has always been a market leader in Ann Arbor in adopting new technology to the closing process and coming up with the application was a natural.
Founded in 1974, Liberty Title is one of the largest independent title agencies in Michigan. The company has offices in Brighton, Canton, Chelsea, Farmington Hills, Jackson and Rochester Hills.
Andy Chapelle shared the above: share your Ann Arbor area business news tips by e-mailing them to him at achapelle@crain.com
mandated madness at the Ann Arbor City Club. I swear regulators don't talk to the grunts that do the jobs. Whatever happened to leadership by walking around?
Anyway there are some intricacies and maybe contract language changes that need to be in effect for the sales agreement with regard to closing costs credit.
Courtesy of Andy Chapelle of Crains: The big news: Liberty Title has developed a new online tool to help mortgage lenders make the accurate fee disclosures mandated by new federal regulations requiring good faith estimates of closing costs on real estate transactions.
Tom Richardson, general counsel and CEO at Liberty Title, says his company’s software is the first of its kind in Michigan.
Richardson said the new HUD rules and mandate for good faith estimates are a major revision to the federal Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act originally passed by Congress in 1974.
The act was created to prevent companies involved in buying and selling of real estate — lenders, realtors, construction companies and title insurance companies — from providing undisclosed kickbacks to each other.
Changes in the law will have a huge impact on the residential real estate market, Richardson said.
“They will definitely change how clients interact with their lenders and how the whole closing process is organized. We are pretty proud of our new application and are going to do presentations in Florida later this week and Atlanta later this month to try and sell it around the country,” he added.
“We have gotten rave reviews from our lender clients and already have 47 lenders signed up on our second day of our release,” he said.
“I will be showing the app to the Title Executives Council in Atlanta at the end of the month. This is a subgroup of our national trade group comprised of the top 55 of the title agents by revenue in the country. We think we can customize the software for other users for $3,000 to $5,000, now that we have created the basic architecture,” Richardson said.
“GFE QuickQuote will give lender’s the accurate information they need to quote title and closing charges, transfer taxes and recording fees to prospective borrowers,” said Michele Richardson, president of Liberty Title.
“Our guaranteed quotes, available in seconds, will give lenders the ability to quickly complete good faith estimates,” she said in a press release.
According to the press release, the new online system can be accessed by lenders through the company’s Web site at www.Libertytitle.com.
The software provides quotes of the lender’s title services, the owner’s title premiums, transfer taxes and recording charges on all types of residential mortgage transactions.
The system also gives lenders tax information for calculating escrow deposits required by the new regulations and assurances that they are making the compliance efforts required by the new federal regulations.
“The system will help them avoid costly refunds arising from inaccurate disclosures on good faith estimates,” Tom Richardson wrote.
And the custom software for the new system was developed locally by Ann Arbor-based Medhub Inc.
“GFE QuickQuote is the type of unique business software that is our specialty” said Peter Orr, CEO of Medhub. “We see great potential for licensing this software in other states.”
“MedHub did a great job of getting the coding done on a rush basis over the Christmas holiday when it became apparent that HUD would stick with its Jan. 1 implementation date even though the industry still had a million questions,” Tom Richardson said.
“We worked on this project for about five months after HUD released their first set of FAQ's to the public on the new regulations. The idea to create the app came as I was chatting with some lender clients who expressed a great deal of concern about their need to quickly get this information in a guaranteed format, 24/7,” he said.
He said Liberty Title has always been a market leader in Ann Arbor in adopting new technology to the closing process and coming up with the application was a natural.
Founded in 1974, Liberty Title is one of the largest independent title agencies in Michigan. The company has offices in Brighton, Canton, Chelsea, Farmington Hills, Jackson and Rochester Hills.
Andy Chapelle shared the above: share your Ann Arbor area business news tips by e-mailing them to him at achapelle@crain.com 
