Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Quick T.R.I.D. Update

A few months ago, major changes took place in the lending world.  These changes, referred to as T.R.I.D. (TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure, for those curious), ignited a lot of fear and uncertainty in the real estate environment.  How would lenders react and adapt to the changes?  Would closings go smoothly after changing the forms that had been in place for 20-something years?  What would the new rules mean for REALTORs and their clients?  A lot of questions were raised, and nobody really knew what to expect.

Well, we are a few months into T.R.I.D and we have (at least a little bit) of clarity.  I obviously don't get to see the behind-the-scenes at mortgage companies, but my impression thus far is that most companies were well prepared for the changes and the transition has been mostly smooth!  Of the closings I've had since T.R.I.D. took effect (using multiple mortgage companies) there have been no noticeable issues and each file has closed on time!  And some mortgage companies have backed-off of their requests for REALTORs to write purchase agreements with 60 day closings.  I've had multiple transactions that closed in 45 days, which was (kind of) the standard prior to T.R.I.D. taking effect.  I think it's safe to say at this point that the fears about T.R.I.D. were just a tad overblown.

Something to ponder for the future, however - with major changes, there are inevitably going to be minor tweaks and changes that take place over time.  I have not heard of anything specific at this point, but it would not surprise me to see things change and improve over time.  It is hard to say how any of these changes might effect things going forward.

If you have specific T.R.I.D. or mortgage-related questions, reach out to me and I'll put you in touch with a loan officer!

Thursday, January 21, 2016

A New Place to Search for Homes!

Tired of looking for houses on Zillow and Trulia and Realtor.com?  I recently rolled out a new website that is fantastic for searching for homes in the Twin Cities - www.joshpeltohomesearch.com!  This website feeds directly from the MLS system that REALTORs use, allows you to create your own account so you can save listings you are interested in, and has an easy to use built-in mortgage calculator that allows you to roughly estimate what a monthly mortgage would cost.

Of course, if you want to search a little more seriously, contact me and I can set you up on a custom home search directly through our MLS system - just shoot me an email!

Happy home searching!