How the inspection works

The AI reads the Loan Estimate your lender sent you, explains every line on it, and grades your Section A total and your rate. You see where each fee sits against the public record, and how your rate compares to the market on the day your loan was priced.

No opinions and no gut feel anywhere in the reading. Every verdict traces to a public data source, and this page names each one.

Step 1: You upload your Loan Estimate

The Loan Estimate is the three page document your lender sent after you applied. It says "Loan Estimate" at the top left of page 1. The reading covers every line item: the loan terms, the rate, and each fee in sections A through J. Fees are graded where a public benchmark exists, which today means the lender's own charges in Section A.

Look for the Rate Lock box near the top of page 1. If it says YES, your pricing is already set, and the AI grades your numbers against the market on the day your Loan Estimate was issued. The date printed in that box is when the lock runs out, not the day you were priced. If it says NO, your estimate can still change, and the AI grades it against today's market instead. Either way your report says which day it used.

Step 2: You confirm your scenario

Pricing depends on the details of your loan: credit score band, down payment, occupancy, property type, loan purpose, and program. The reading detects what it can from your document, and you confirm or correct the rest. It matters, because a great rate for one scenario is a poor rate for another.

Step 3: The AI grades your fees against real loans

Fee verdicts come from Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data, the public federal record of actual mortgages. When your report says your Section A total is above range, it means that total sits above what lenders actually charged other borrowers with loans like yours, rather than a rule of thumb. Section A is graded as one total, points included, because that is how the public record reports it. The comparison pool matches your loan three ways: program, purpose, and loan size band, because a point on a large loan is more dollars than a point on a small one. The typical range in your report is the middle half of the public record: the span from the 25th to the 75th percentile of what lenders charged on comparable loans of similar size nationwide. Half of all loans of your type land inside that range, a quarter land below it, and a quarter land above it.

Step 4: The AI reads your rate against the market

Rate verdicts come from daily market indices, rather than advertised teaser rates. We use the Optimal Blue Mortgage Market Indices (OBMMI), published by Optimal Blue, which track the rates on loans actually locked each day. We also use related rate series from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Your quoted rate is compared to the index that matches your program and your pricing day.

This product uses the FRED® API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Step 5: The AI applies pricing adjustments the way each program actually does

A quoted rate only makes sense next to the adjustments your scenario carries. The AI applies them per program.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans

Conventional loans carry loan level price adjustments (LLPAs), set out in matrices both agencies publish. Our pricing grid was audited line by line against those published matrices. Credit score, down payment, occupancy, property type, and loan purpose each move your price exactly the way the matrices say they do.

First time homebuyer waivers

First time homebuyers may qualify for a full waiver of those adjustments under HomeReady and Home Possible eligibility rules. If that could apply to you, your report says so.

FHA loans

FHA loans price differently. There are no agency matrices. Your cost is driven by FHA mortgage insurance, the upfront premium and the annual premium, and the AI grades your rate against FHA specific market series.

VA loans

VA loans price through the VA funding fee, and the AI grades the rate against the market accordingly. If you may be exempt from the funding fee, the report flags the assumption it used.

What the verdicts mean

• BELOW RANGE: the number sits under what comparable loans actually show.
• WITHIN RANGE: the number sits inside what comparable loans actually show.
• ABOVE RANGE: the number sits above what comparable loans actually show, and the report shows how far.

A verdict is a measurement. Fees can be high for reasons specific to your loan, and the report gives you the measurement and the reason behind it.

The data sources, in one place

• Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) public data: fee and cost benchmarks from real mortgages.
• Optimal Blue Mortgage Market Indices (OBMMI, published by Optimal Blue): daily locked rate indices by program.
• FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis: related rate series, cited as suggested by FRED.
• Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac published pricing matrices: loan level price adjustments, audited against the source documents.

The fee benchmarks come from the most recent full year of published HMDA data, currently the 2024 data year, and we refresh them when a new year is published. The rate indices are daily series, so your rate is read against the market on the exact day that matters for your loan. We apply the pricing matrices as published and update our grid when Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac publish changes.

Common questions

What we do not do

We do not sell loans. We do not take money from lenders. We do not pass your information to anyone who does. The report is the product, you are the only customer, and your uploaded document is deleted automatically once your report is delivered. Read more about why that matters on our independence page.

Ready to see your own numbers? Upload your Loan Estimate and the AI starts reading.