Study Finds More in Compliance With RESPA

Ernst Publishing Company has announced the results of an internal study that indicates that problems related to compliance with the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) will cost the industry less money in 2012. The results are based on a study of users of the firm’s Smart Query II recording fee and tax calculator. Ernst’s Smart Query II provides guaranteed fee quotes for RESPA’s Blocks 4-8. The firm has been providing this information to the industry since 1989. The company estimates that the industry loses half a billion dollars to inaccurate quotes for real estate recordings each year. “The industry is now comfortable with the technologies used to provide real estate recording fee and tax information,” said Gregory E. Teal, president and CEO of Ernst Publishing. “Our product has been in the market for years now and the quotes it returns are guaranteed to be accurate. As more lenders take advantage of guaranteed fee quotes, fewer mistakes will occur and lenders will lose less money to non-compliance. With guaranteed quotes, lenders need never worry about non-compliance in these areas again. For that reason, and others, we expect to see fewer lenders paying non-compliance fees in the year ahead.”