Ernst, the leading provider of technology and closing cost data for the real estate and home finance industries for the past 29 years, has released a new offering that allows lenders to accurately disclose closing costs to borrowers even if the fees are scheduled to change before the closing date, thus protecting them from TRID violations.
Date Forward allows the lender to estimate fees accurately as of the expected closing date, not just the application date, the company announced in a release.
“Fees change all the time. Last year we saw over 12,000 fee changes, a record high from previous years,” Ernst Publishing President and CEO Gregory E. Teal said in the release. “This exposes the lender to significant risk, especially in a purchase money environment where taking the time to re-disclose is subject to the three-day change of circumstance requirement. Not re-disclosing means lender cures. Date Forward gives the lender the confidence to disclose the fees accurately from their first quote, even if they will change before the loan gets to the closing table.”
Last year, Ernst’s systems found that fee changes handed down by county recorders in the state of Louisiana alone resulted in millions of dollars in additional fees for consumers. Lenders that failed to disclose these additional fees were forced to choose between delaying the closing or paying the difference themselves.
Ernst’s patented monitoring program works together with its Date Forward calculator to validate for the lender and title closing agent that the anticipated fee change actually went into effect. Together, the two programs provide a complete solution for disclosing accurate closing costs, even if they change during loan processing, the release said.
Ernst programs processed 250 million real estate transactions in 2017, making it the most used technology of its kind in the industry. Since the company was founded 29 years ago, Ernst has processed more than 1 billion transactions and unveiled dozens of technologies and products that produce efficiency across the real estate industry. The firm estimates that their technologies is in use for 90 percent of the nation’s new loan originations and refinance transactions.