Ask the RESPA Doctor.

Dr. Gary Lacefield, is President of RiskMitigation.net. As an ex-HUD investigator, currently training HUD personnel, he also advises mortgage lenders, Realtors® and title companies on issues regarding RESPA and Fair Housing. Fair Lending Training DVD with testing capability available. Click here for more information.

This monthly column is published on the 20^th of each month. Please submit your questions and/or comments here, for the RESPA expert.

Question #1:

I just closed a loan where my customer bought a foreclosure through a REO company who handles properties for various banks and mortgage companies. We were set to close when we received a call from a title company that said they handled all closings for this company and that we HAD to use them. My title company challenged this since they had finished the title work and we were ready to close. The REO company would not use my title company and insisted that we use their company to do the closing. Isn't this a violation of RESPA to force a customer to use a specific vendor?

Question #2:

If one of my loan officers pays a referral fee to someone out of their own pocket, as their broker, how am I affected if I had no knowledge of the payment?

Question #3:

Regarding the Fee Chart, how do I prove what the agent did to earn that fee? Does the fee chart apply only to licensed agents or to anyone that may refer a loan? What if you are also paying a processor on that loan? Don't fees somewhat overlap?

Continue this story to read Dr. Gary Lacefield's answer's.

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