RESPA - Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act The Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) ensures that consumers throughout the nation are provided with more helpful information about the cost of the mortgage settlement and protected from unnecessarily high settlement charges caused by certain abusive practices.
The most recent RESPA Rule makes obtaining mortgage financing clearer and, ultimately, cheaper for consumers. The new Rule includes a required, standardized Good Faith Estimate (GFE) to facilitate shopping among settlement service providers and to improve disclosure of settlement costs and interest rate related terms. The HUD-1 was improved to help consumers determine if their actual closing costs were within established tolerance requirements.
