08/25/2024
We are in the process of implementing an insurance agency subsidiary owned 100% by the bank. We will not be quoting the agency’s rates on LEs or listing the insurance agency on the Services You Can Shop for Disclosure. However, our lenders will be referring mortgage loan customers to the insurance agency, so my understanding is the referral is what triggers the Affiliated Business Arrangement Disclosure requirement. So we are trying to figure that out. My question is, how should we provide an estimated range of charges for insurance? That could be vastly different depending on the home, location, etc. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!
09/17/2023
Can you do a HELOC on a home a customer is buying? The first draw will be to complete the purchase.
The house has a purchase price of $90,000 and they need to borrow $30,000. They don't want all the expenses and hassle a regular mortgage entails. They want to just take out a HELOC on that new home. A HELOC is not TRID so we would not need all the documention either.
09/10/2023
We are currently looking at escrowing taxes and insurance on commercial real estate loans. I have not found anything stating we can't or shouldn't, however we don't currently have a procedure to do so. We also are having some commercial customers coming in after the loan is booked asking for us to escrow. Are there any specific dos and don'ts? Does anyone have procedures they wouldn't mind sharing? What rules apply here?
12/11/2022
We analyze our escrow accounts in December of each year with the payment change effective February.
Our taxes are billed based on the owner as of December 31 of the previous year. Taxes are due in October. So this year the estimated taxes due in October would be $260, based on the seller who owned the property as of last year end. The estimated taxes per the county for our borrower are based on the sales price will now be $5,600 based in part on this being our borrower's second home and having no tax exemptions available.
We collect a tax escrows at closing and based accrual payments on the $260 we estimated would be owed. My question is, to prevent payment shock to our borrower in the next year, do regulations allow us to change the estimated tax amount to $5,600 AFTER we pay the taxes this year, but BEFORE we perform the escrow analysis in December, or should we only collect taxes based on the $260 for the entire year of 2023 and depend on the borrower to voluntarily deposit extra escrow monies into his escrow account to make up the difference?
11/13/2022
We're having issues setting up escrows on a property that was previously exempt for real estate taxes. The due date will be 1/31/24 with an investor cushion of 2 months. Our system (Encompass) is going back to 11 months and that will collect too much for 2022.
10/30/2022
Are surplus escrow funds required to be mailed out in the form of a check to customers, or are there other ways the funds can be provided back to the borrower?
10/16/2022
Are Banks required to pay interest on a mortgage escrow account with a balance of $25,000.00 or more?
08/21/2022
What loan types must be provided a Notice of Servicing Transfer?
04/10/2022
If a "Can Shop For Fee" was disclosed on the loan estimate, but at closing that fee was not needed/purchased, is the fee removed from the 10% tolerance calculation? Or is it still recognized and included for cumulative totals?
08/01/2021
It has just come to our attention that we have a consumer construction loan and on the cost breakdown there is a line item labeled "New Construction Realtor Referral Fee." The Realtor is charging a 1.5% referral fee for referring the contractor to the borrower. The contractor is charging the borrower for the fee. Is this a violation of RESPA Section 8? Contractors are never mentioned in section 8, but Realtors are.
This is apparently happening more than we knew, but the fee is generally wrapped into the builder's fee and not its own line item, so the bank was not aware of the problem.