How accurate was your GFE?

I've heard horror stories of them being WAY more than anticipated, and then I've heard of people's who were less.

I'm terrified we won't have enough to close.

Gah- I didn't finish the poll- there was supposed to be "We paid A little less" as an option as well.

Message edited 9/8/2009 4:58:14 PM.

Re: How accurate was your GFE?

I think they were about a $1k off for us- which I didnt think was bad

Re: How accurate was your GFE?

The "800 fees" section should be exactly accurate. That is where all the main "fees" for the mortgage that are set by the lender go and that is the section you want to look at closely when comparing lenders. Every fee associated with a GFE has a number to categorize it. If the number is between 800-899, pay close attention to it.

Stuff like mortgage tax and title insurance should be accurate as well since those numbers are determined by the state and should be the same with every lender.

The only variables should be your mortgage interest paid (depending on the day you close), the amount of the bank's attorney, and whether or not you decide to escrow. There may be others that I am missing.

I have gone over a lot of GFEs for friends, and most of the time if the numbers were really off, it was due to the GFE being done without escrow and the final HUD1 was done with escrow. Other big numbers could be the amount borrowed on the GFE and what you actually bought for, as well as estimated total taxes and HOI on the GFE and what you ended up with.

Re: How accurate was your GFE?

it was right on. we expected to pay about $1600 (we had a seller's concession of 3%) plus two points.

we paid almost exactly that, i think maybe a little bit less.

keep in mind that attorney fees (your own) are not included in the GFE so you have to factor that in. seems obvious, but DH and i didn't think that far ahead