Mortgage guides
Plain-English answers about Loan Estimates, lender fees, and rates, written from the same public data the inspection uses.
Reading your Loan Estimate
The Loan Estimate is the three-page pricing document your lender must send within three business days of your application. Here is what each page tells you and what each line means.
A fictional Loan Estimate on the official CFPB form for a $382,500 purchase, every box numbered and explained, plus the fee total and rate read against public data.
A rate sheet, a fee worksheet, and a Loan Estimate are three different documents. How to tell which one your lender sent you and how to read each one.
Why a $13,000 closing costs number is usually three different things, and which lines on the Loan Estimate are the lender's own price.
An LLPA is a pricing adjustment Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac apply based on your loan's risk features. You usually pay it inside your rate. Here is what moves yours and who gets a waiver.
Lender fees
2024 HMDA benchmarks for Section A totals by loan program, purpose and loan size, with worked total examples.
CFPB rules explain which closing costs cannot increase, which share a 10 percent total limit, and which can change.
A section-by-section map of who sets each charge on your Loan Estimate: lender fees and points, services you can shop for, government fees, prepaids.
Your rate
You cannot tell from the rate alone. A mortgage offer is good when its rate and fees match what the market charged borrowers like you on the day your loan was priced. Here is how to check.
Why credit score rate averages mislead, what the published agency pricing really says about your score band, and how to grade the rate you were actually quoted.
A locked rate has to be judged against the market on the day it was locked, not against today's headlines. The method, step-by-step.
Nobody honest can print one number, but the published agency pricing for this exact profile is public. What 780 and 20 percent down really buys.
Getting a second look
Five ways to get a second opinion on a Loan Estimate, what each one can and cannot tell you, and where an independent read fits.
Yes, tools that read a Loan Estimate now exist, ours included. The three questions that judge any of them, what a real check measures, and what no tool can do.
Yes. The Loan Estimate was standardized so you could compare offers. What sharing does, what it does not touch, and what to check before uploading it to review software.
The 10 business day rule, the 3 day delivery rule, and how much shopping time you really have between offer and closing.