As recently stated on the OAITA blog,
HUD has just announced that it is now seeking public comment until September 1, 2010 concerning the "required use" of controlled business arrangements by way of the Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR).
You can make comments here. Click on the Public Submissions to see the comments from others.
The purpose of the ANPR is to solicit information that can be used to inform any future revision or clarification of the regulatory definition of the "required use" of affiliated settlement service providers in residential mortgage transactions.
While that sounds broad, the ANPR is principally directed at homebuilders. The ANPR was launched once before and tabled in 2008. The latest ANPR is in response to the complaints that homebuyers have sent to HUD concerning the practice of homebuilders forcing their customers to use a builder's affiliated mortgage lender in exchange for construction discounts, etc.
The specific requests HUD provided within the latest ANPR suggest a sole focus on the homebuilder question, not realtor-owned or bank-owned CBAs. With the weakened state of the homebuilder lobby and the desire on the part of real estate and bank lobbies to squeeze more business out of the settlement service market, look for the homebuilders to get creamed with this rule.
Further driving a pessimistic view of the ANPR is the fact that the former guru of the CBA program for Long & Foster Realty is now the Director of FHA within RESPA and has heavy influence over the Interstate Land Sales office from which RESPA compliance activities are launched.
No comments:
Post a Comment