If you are purchasing a home or a second home, whether you are a first time buyer or it's your third or fourth purchase, you are going to encounter a totally new form when you sit down with your bank or mortgage company representative to make your mortgage application.

Due to changes in Federal Regulations, effective January 1, 2010, there is a new (and improved?) Good Faith Estimate (GFE) form that you will receive from your lender.  The new form is more complex than the one you may have seen before and is designed to give you, the borrower, a more accurate and also more binding disclosure of the costs that you will be paying when you go to your closing.

It is now even more important that you ask your closing attorney, as early in the process as possible, to review this document with you.  Most times it can be handled over the phone, but it is up to the borrower to get a copy of the form delivered, preferably by email or fax, to your attorney as soon as possible after you receive it.  There should be no additional fee for this service, and it is helpful to your attorney and the paralegal working on your file to see the GFE as early in the process as possible.

Real estate attorneys and paralegals at Penny, Botticello & O'Brien, P.C. are familiar with this form and will be happy to review it with you as part of our representation.  Early review of this form can often save both you and us from having to deal with delays in scheduling your closing if fees should change after the GFE is issued.