Have you bought or sold a home in the last forty years? Aside from interest rates and loan products, not much has changed in the home-buying process during that time. But some important changes are on their way, thanks to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). They're called the Truth in Lending Act (TILA) - Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) Integrated Disclosure, or TRID for short...because there weren't enough acronyms already.

To download a handy booklet that covers everything a consumer would need to know about TRID, head over to the CFPB website and look for the "Your Home Loan Toolkit" PDF brochure. I'll go over the highlights for you:

• Today, many real estate contracts request a closing date 30 days out. When TRID goes into effect on October 3rd, lenders and title companies are recommending that you allow an extra week or two on the contract to ensure compliance with new government mandated waiting periods that are designed to allow consumers adequate time to review loan information prior to closing.
• As a buyer, you'll probably be asked by your lender to sign documents electronically since that will be the most practical way to comply with the new laws.
• The preapproval process remains unchanged, for the most part. Although lenders are now prohibited from requiring income information to provide a Loan Estimate (LE), a smart buyer should know that the most solid loan preapproval will be based on that income information. So make sure you're being open with your loan officer!
• Sometimes under the current laws, the loan is processed well before the closing date, and you get to close early! That's going to be pretty unlikely under the new rules, because the closing date determines some of the information on the Closing Disclosure (CD) and the lender needs to provide the CD to the borrower no later than 3 days prior to closing (including Saturdays for some lenders, excluding Sundays and federal holidays for all lenders).

While there is a lot more to say about TRID, very little of it will be seen by the average consumer. My advice is to make sure you're ready to act quickly once you've chosen a home: provide all the details to your loan officer, get an estimate on homeowner's insurance, and make sure your Realtor is communicating with the lender and the title company on a regular basis.