Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: Free mortgage analysis tool to avoid getting screwed by closing costs

closingwtf.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 175 posts

Re: Show HN: Free mortgage analysis tool to avoid getting screwed by closing costs

#71

Post by doctorpangloss »

aaln wrote: post #67
doctorpangloss wrote: post #62

I don't get it. What is the difference between: I want to pay less I want to pay less, and here's a document an AI wrote for me The scenario you've outlined doesn't make sense. It sounds like your goal is to collect these idiosyncratic documents. Which is also unusual - like why do the documents matter? What is the purpose?

The analysis is generated via ~15 prompts and the output is pretty useful if you're going through buying a property with a mortgage. The goal is to help mortgage borrowers get better deals on their mortgage. All mortgage terms are outlined in the loan estimate and closing disclosure documents as required by the CFPB (consumer financial protection bureau) - https://www.consumerfinance.gov/owning-a-home/loan-estimate T…

> The goal is to help mortgage borrowers get better deals on their mortgage.

I don't get it. Better, LendingTree, Credible, Bankrate, and a dozen other firms all aggregate mortgages. If there are some "best" mortgages in absolute terms, show them, you don't need anything on the form to do that; if there are offers that have lower upfront costs in exchange for higher rates, because the buyer is sensitive to upfront costs, show them. Why do you need to see the document in order to give the user what he wants?

Since you already know all of this, it begs the question: why do you specifically want to collect these documents? I'm not saying there is some conspiracy or anything.

Re: Show HN: Free mortgage analysis tool to avoid getting screwed by closing costs

#72

Post by cool_dude85 »

Not wanting to upload my info here, but what, concretely, does this tool do?

Does it scan to see if some of the fees I am agreeing to are higher than average? If I am paying for some services that should be no-cost or have no real value?

Re: Show HN: Free mortgage analysis tool to avoid getting screwed by closing costs

#73

Post by fragmede »

ziddoap wrote: post #36
mannyv wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ignore the haters, they will probably never be your customer.

People are trying to increase the potential customer base of the author by pointing out where there is room to improve. That is incredibly valuable, and one of the major reasons to do a Show HN. That is not being a "hater".

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42150219 was highly constructive. It was direct and actionable.

kojeovo's original comment was less so. When you build a product, you're going to get random, in-actionable comments from people who just like to complain. Separating the signal from noise is difficult, and while there is a underlying concern about privacy, not giving anything actionable moves it towards to the noise side of the spectrum.

Re: Show HN: Free mortgage analysis tool to avoid getting screwed by closing costs

#74

Post by asdasdsddd »

doctorpangloss wrote: post #71
aaln wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The analysis is generated via ~15 prompts and the output is pretty useful if you're going through buying a property with a mortgage. The goal is to help mortgage borrowers get better deals on their mortgage. All mortgage terms are outlined in the loan estimate and closing disclosure documents as required by the CFPB (consumer financial protection bureau) - https://www.consumerfinance.gov/owning-a-home/loan-estimate T…

> The goal is to help mortgage borrowers get better deals on their mortgage. I don't get it. Better, LendingTree, Credible, Bankrate, and a dozen other firms all aggregate mortgages. If there are some "best" mortgages in absolute terms, show them, you don't need anything on the form to do that; if there are offers that have lower upfront costs in exchange for higher rates, because the buyer is sensitive to upfront co…

The things you're mentioning allows you to compare mostly rates and points, but they don't do anything for origination or third party fees which can vary wildly from lender to lender. These fees MUST be disclosed in the loan estimate or the closing disclosure and its pretty much the only place you'll find them

Re: Show HN: Free mortgage analysis tool to avoid getting screwed by closing costs

#75

Post by gsharma »

gruez wrote: post #45
b1ngb0n1 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aside from the personal details (name, address, etc), they can collect pricing info on houses, run analytics, and swoop the deal with a slightly better offer or better yet, sell it to wholesale buyers, reits, and whoever is interested in stealing the deal.

>they can collect pricing info on houses, run analytics AFAIK house sale prices (ie. property transactions) are open in many (most?) jurisdictions. >and swoop the deal with a slightly better offer How does that even work? The winning bidder is presumably someone who gave the highest offer. Why would another company pay above and beyond that, considering that there's probably several other serious buyers who aren't wi…

The deal isn’t always about the price. For example, a $1M house bought with $100K down and $900K mortgage is a worse deal for the seller as compared to $500K down and $500K financed. Assumption here is that it is more likely to get a $500K loan irrespective of the appraised value of the house.

A lower all cash offer (say $975K) is likely a better offer for the seller because it reduces the risk for them and closes the transaction much quicker than a mortgage transaction.

I have been a buyer in two transactions where my offer was slightly lower than the highest bidder, but with better terms.

Re: Show HN: Free mortgage analysis tool to avoid getting screwed by closing costs

#76

Post by asdasdsddd »

freeone3000 wrote: post #63

Hey. I ended up with an error saying my PDF could not be processed? But it’s my final loan disclosure form… Also, I’m not entirely sure what costs this avoids? Inspection fees are already paid at this point, notary fees are paid to your broker, and transfer tax happens months later.

Most of the variance is in origination charges and title fees afaik. For example, borrower title insurance which is usually option can cost like 5k.

Re: Show HN: Free mortgage analysis tool to avoid getting screwed by closing costs

#77

Post by SoftTalker »

takeda wrote: post #68
SoftTalker wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have never done a wire transfer at a residential closing. I come to the closing at the title company office with a cashier's check from my bank for the amount they told me to bring.

Did you bought enough houses to assume that's always the case? My experience was that I was told to send the cashier's check using overnight FedEx because they did not have office in my area.

No, fair enough. I would not close anywhere other than a local title company though. I've had a few odd things surface at the last minute that were resolvable because everyone was sitting around the same table.

Re: Show HN: Free mortgage analysis tool to avoid getting screwed by closing costs

#78

Post by aaln »

cool_dude85 wrote: post #72

Not wanting to upload my info here, but what, concretely, does this tool do? Does it scan to see if some of the fees I am agreeing to are higher than average? If I am paying for some services that should be no-cost or have no real value?

The tool analyzes mortgage loan estimates and closing disclosures to find every potential place a buyer might be overpaying, every negotiable fee, and show the buyer a comprehensive AI analysis so they don't get screwed over and can have peace of mind on buying their home.

When I was closing on a house, I called a few friends to help review my mortgage, and we found lots of mistakes. For example, I was getting charged transfer tax, which didn’t make sense for Florida where the seller typically pays that. The deeper I dug, the more I realized how much gray area there is with these documents - what’s negotiable, what’s inflated, what's normal in the property's jurisdiction, and what’s just non-competitive but seems ok since there's a lot of simplified complexity that goes into mortgages and what's an extra 1-3% on a mortgage that's "just going to be refinanced in 6 months" when interest rates go down.

Re: Show HN: Free mortgage analysis tool to avoid getting screwed by closing costs

#79

Post by bastloing »

aaln wrote: post #5
kojeovo wrote: post #2

The privacy and security part is not inspiring confidence. Scrolling to the next section got me thinking "Don't get scammed at closing, get scammed before closing after uploading your mortgage documents to a random website." Cool idea though.

Hey, Aaron the builder here. The scamming that happens to homebuyers is not even comparable to the risk in uploading docs to a website which promises they won't share user data with anyone. This is genuinely a pro buyer tool with no association with any 3rd party. The tool has already helped many people negotiate and get a better deal on their mortgage. Please before judging understand that 70% of buyers overpay in t…

Doesn't matter your promise, even though you may or may not be trusted, hackers can get it and steal it all. So it's not necessarily you or your service.

Re: Show HN: Free mortgage analysis tool to avoid getting screwed by closing costs

#80

Post by zie »

AntiRush wrote: post #37
adamtaylor_13 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Legitimately curious, what’s the worst they could do with this data?

The most common scams around home buying are wire fraud - contact the buyer pretending to be the title company and steal their money. The data in a mortgage is exactly what you need to enable these scams and you're getting people to hand it to you and at the same time tell you they are about to wire money.

Wire Transfers are not undoable and instant, much like Zelle. So I always recommend people send $10 first, and confirm everything works, before sending real money. When doing the confirmation, try using a different channel of communication, to ensure you are getting the right person. i.e. call them directly from known good phone numbers or something.

Yes many banks charge $30 or more for a wire transfer, but I'd rather just pay the $60 than have a large sum wire transfer lost, stolen, etc.

Some banks/Brokerages are sane and do not charge extra for wire transfers. Fidelity is one such. BOA also(if you have enough assets there, $100k will do it).

Post reply on HN