I locked my 15 yr loan 4.875 0 points on 6/26 and yet to see a GFE so I thought well rates seem to be dropping I better contact my LO to see what is happening. He mentioned it should be in the mail and they do have 3 business days to get it out which of course it has been well over 3 business days including the holiday.

He emails me the GFE this evening and I just don't understand the amounts estimated for the impound account.  Don't they know how much we pay for property tax and homeowner's insurance? They are asking 1630.41 more than I calculate they should need for 6 months of taxes plus the 2 month cush totaling 8 months of taxes.

I've emailed my LO my calculations and hopefully he will forward my calculation to the person that prepared the GFE. I just can't accept this GFE!

Don't worry about the impound estimates. In the end, they will be the same from any lender. The amounts collected are Federally regulated and no lender will over collect. The only variance will be the amount of cushion selected by the lender. It is typically a 2 month cushion but some only collect a one month cushion. I always estimate on the high side to play it safe. There is nothing worse than running short at the end of the process and having to send the loan back to underwriting for an increased loan amount.

Thank you for your reply Bob! That is encouraging to know that this is Federally regulated and no lender can over collect. It was just shocking to look at this GFE! My LO less than 2 weeks ago said since you won't be having an appraisal your closing costs could be under 2,000 and then another 2,000 for Impound account and my GFE that I received today totals $8,169.95.

I had a previous GFE from Feb 2009 so I kind of thought his estimate of less than 2 k in closing costs was optimistic even without the appraisal but I didn't expect such a high estimate for the Impound Account because the lender should know our costs for both taxes and Insurance.  They should have that on file since they are our current lender.

We've noticed a new fee on this GFE that wasn't on the previous, "Settlement Agent/Escrow " $200

Thanks for your help!

The GFE was due to you 3 days after the credit report was pulled (application was taken), not after the lock.  Redisclosure should be provided if things change.

If he said, "your closing costs COULD be under $2,000...", that should send up red flags.  Your rate COULD be 3% on a 30 year fixed rate mortgage, but I doubt that will ever happen.

It is a good thing that you had some previous documents to reference, but it is disappointing to hear that you aren't getting the correct information.

Thanks Kent for your reply! The previous GFE that I have from Feb 2009 has been a good reference and I actually prepared myself to not be as optimistic as my LO was by saying our closing costs could be under 2,000.  However, our refinance scenario is now different  283,100 30 yr 5 % .5 point now we are borrowing 250,000 15 yr 4.875% 0 points . I looked over the different fees excluding the appraisal fee that we were avoiding in this refinance and still calculated $2,700 but then I felt he may know what he was talking about and since our loan amount is lower maybe we would incur lower fees.  That doesn't seem to be the case.  We seem to be paying more in fees now including a $200 fee for "settlement agent/Escrow"? We are paying $550 for closing or Escrow fee both of these charges are under the category of Title charges.

We've asked our LO to have the GFE resubmitted to us with realistic values in regards to the impound account and we've provided documentation such as our insurance premium statement and property assessment.  My husband feels we can't accept a GFE that is well over our calculations and above the monthly payments that we can afford.  Have you had customers with this same issue and asked to resubmit a GFE?  We can understand when it is a home purchase because they must go on the previous assessed value but this is a refi, our lender knows how much we pay in taxes and insurance.  I'm still waiting to hear from my LO.  Why can't this just go smoothly?

There is no reason to worry about what the lender discloses on the GFE in regard to your taxes and insurance payments and escrow set up.  It is actually better to have them overestimated than underestimated because when they change it to the actual amounts, it is less likely to be negatively impacted by any further underwriting.

Your replies have eased my worries some. Thanks!  I'm yet to hear the same comforting words from my LO, maybe he's discussing this with the person that prepared the GFE. I was reading a post in this forum that describes the GFE in detail and mentions the 1000 series (Reserves Deposited with Lender) should be highly accurate. However, ours in not highly accurate. 

It's like overestimating the interest, despite knowing
what the actual rate is. Somethings are what they are and we should
not presume them different. And there is the 2 month buffer to account
for moderate increases etc,

I am sure that I am not the first nor will be the last customer that is shocked by their GFE.  However, I feel if we say nothing we are agreeing to that estimate and we can't afford it.  I realize it is safer to estimate more than less but I just need more reassurance that we won't be paying that much.

Kent is correct in that you should not be concerned about the estimates for impounds, as they will be essentially the same from any lender, and are Federally regulated.  One thing you may want to ask your originator is if they can simply transfer the existing escrow account.  As they are the current lender, they could quite possible be able to do this, and that would keep your new loan amount a bit lower, rather than rolling in a new escrow account, and receiving the existing balance back 30 days later.

We don't have an existing impound account, we did initially to lock a better rate but we were able to cancel it after a few months unlike this situation since our refi LTV is 86% our Impound account is required.  So we are starting a new impound account since we no longer have one in place.

Well after a call and another email my LO replied!   He reassured me that this is just a rough estimate and a standard formula is used to calculate the impound account. He also mentioned that he's convinced that we will be happy with what they will do for us including a discount on title insurance will be given due to same lender, same title company as before and he will keep a look out on the rates if they continue to drop it may be possible to renegotiate a better rate than what we currently have locked.  His reassurance has certainly made me feel better! You have also been so helpful! Thanks! Have a great weekend!