HMDA GMI applicant applies face-to-face, in high heels and a dress with bright red lipstick. She signs an initial application and final application stating her gender is male. File as male? Or disregard her signed GMI and correct it to what it says on her ID? I like the info to be "correct" but I also like it to be documented as to where I got it.

Unless you caught the error in her presence, pointed it out, and she fixed it, i'd report it as is.

Ommmmm...if 'she' considers herself a 'he', you surely wouldn't want to point anything out. You report as a person answers...just like when they check every single race on the form.

Ditto to what the others said. Report as the applicant marked.

Yeah, but there's nothing in the original post that leads me to think this was intentional....if a person i knew reported it incorrectly and it was a mistake, i think i'd point it out to them if able. I recently had one of these (i don't take applications, so i can't fix them)....a guy i know who knows he's a guy and wouldn't report otherwise accidentally reported female...i reported it that way......

Wrong twice by accident?

When a customer marks the GMI, the bank's requirement is solely to transcribe.
(Exception is in a F/F when they mark "I do not wish to furnish.")

If you're wrong about that once on an application, twice seems logical to me (because obviously, you aren't reading the selections, just checking where you 'think' you're supposed to check).

I'll stick to what i said: if someone i know checks the wrong gender in my presence, i'm probably going to ask them if that's really what they meant. If someone i don't know does it, i'd report it.

OP here: Well, she signed the two apps. Both were filled out by the bank electronically, in a face-to-face application. We don't have any borrowers filling out their own applications or GMI on 1003s.

That's a bad practice, IMHO...you should give them the chance to complete that section themselves...so now you are saying perhaps the app taker messed up?

I'll second that ^^^. A simple "Please read this over to make sure it's accurate, and sign where indicated" isn't enough to ensure that Minnie actually pays attention to how the GMI is filled out. And if it's a bank employee who filled it out, I'm guessing no one asked Minnie "are you a boy or are you a girl?" The item was completed by observation, but apparently incorrectly. This is a process flaw, rather than a confused/careless applicant.

OP: Well, thanks, John, for taking my open can of worms and shaking it about, then throwing down the can! But seriously (John, or anyone): is it truly that unusual to have zero handwritten apps in the mortgage environment, where apps have to satisfy purchasers on the secondary market, and be legible, and have correct info (this GMI field notwithstanding)?

No, it's not that unusual unless your computers are down when a customer is scheduled for an app. To me it's faster to complete on-line..to others, not so much.

However, the GMI section should be handed to the borrower when it's time for them to sign and they should be able to read and complete that section in their own hand, just like you should do with a hand-written application.

It doesn't matter if they're handwritten or machine generated. Applications are suppossed to be correct. We sell everything to secondary market and they take handwritten or mortgagebot or both.

imho, as the HMDA reporter here, I make sure all final applications' GMI sections are reviewed PRIOR to the borrower signing off at closing. It only takes a minute and saves all kinds of embarassment and, more importantly, errors in reporting.

eta: I disagree with the need to hand the borrower the app to complete the GMI. You can read it to them as they sit infront of you and give them all the options and check their responses.

OP: I would think that is what we are doing too. One big advantage of completing it on the PC ourselves is that it eliminates or nearly eliminates the possibility that the hand-made checkmarks will say something different than what our PC, and therefore our LAR, says. Thanks to all for help. I'm leaving it Mr. Minnie Mouse, because the borrower and LO all seemed to agree at the time, and it would only be now, months later, that I'm questioning whether the twice-signed app had an error.

Your original post implied the confusion arose because the applicant was wearing a dress and makeup, but now from the quote above, I wonder if I assumed incorrectly.

Just throwing this out there, but is your confusion arising because of a first name that seems to be more commonly used for a female than a male? My father's new-to-the-States British mother decided to name him Lindsay, which at the time was only a boy's name in England, but soon exploded in popularity as a feminine name in the US thanks to Lindsay Wagner. He constantly gets mail addressed to Ms. Lindsy..etc. and this drives him bonkers. Ashley, Leslie, Kelly, Kimberly..these all were once very popular men's names.

As KW said, surrogates can be an issue. My wife was an IT auditor. In the department were: Claire, Robin, Pat, Lesley and Roxanne. Roxanne and Pat were girls, while Robin, Claire and Lesley were guys.

Now I have never heard Claire as a male name before...that IS interesting!

Clair Bee....famous old basketball coach.

Also, his parents had a sence of humor, his middle name is Waldo and he was an USAF pilot in the far east

I bet nobody picked on him!

OP: Wellllll, actually, no, I don't have that info even. In the interests of anonymity, and just to illustrate how sure I feel that "female" would have been the right answer, I set up the question that way. This person's name is a 99%-of-the-time female name, and I've seen a copy of her DL and it says "F" for gender. So, I gave a description to imply I was pretty sure the real answer is female. I'm never too sure in BOL if people are taking every word as literal or not. Some of my questions are hypothetical-yet-based-on-a-real-incident.

I feel safe in saying that we're pretty literal around here. Posters react to the information provided so, especially when you're posting anonymously or under a pseudonym, there's no need for elaborate what if's.

I agree. the group in general is pretty literal (as there is nothing else to go on) and sometimes grammatical.