Get educated about buying a home. Click here (http://bit.ly/RESPAHandbook) for HUD’s revised special information booklet (Booklet) designed to assist individuals seeking to buy a home to become familiar with the home-buying process. Get information:
- regarding the purchase contract, interest rates, points, balloon payments, prepayment penalties and how they can affect mortgage payments
- how to use a Good Faith Estimate to shop for the best loan
- required settlement services to close the loan, and the HUD-1 Settlement Statement
- how to resolve loan servicing problems that will help avoid actions that could lead to foreclosure
[The Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act of 1974 (RESPA) (12 U.S.C. 2601-2617), establishes the process for disclosing settlement costs in the financing or refinancing of a home, and helps protect consumers from unethical practices by settlement service providers during the home-buying and loan process. Under RESPA, lenders and mortgage brokers are required to give borrowers this Booklet within three days of the borrower’s applying for a mortgage loan.]