Remember New Year’s Eve, 1999, watching the ball drop and wondering if all the lights were going to turn off, if your car was going to work, if your home computer would be deemed useless?  

Then the clock struck midnight and….nothing happened. It was just another Dick Clark New Year celebration.

Some are comparing TRID to Y2K. Housing Wire’s December 3rd article is great example.

For our escrow, title, and mortgage clients, October 3rd, 2015 always seemed like a date in the distant future. Maybe because of a combination of denial and our tendency to procrastinate, it always seemed so far away.  Then, all of the sudden, summer was over and the implementation of the TRID was right in front of all of us like a black cloud.

As we wind down the end of 2015, it seems as though we have all survived. And while our clients have made up some of their own acronyms for TRID (“D” stands for drink and you’ll get the idea), business has continued.

Many of our clients are thankful for educational opportunities that CEA and their regional escrow associations put together.  The larger title companies had intensive training and preparation.  Most clients are not saying that the application changes are the problem.  Rather, it’s the longer time between opening and closing (45 days is now the minimum standard), and the overall complexity of the process that is the problem.  Escrow is often stuck with the complications, while the lender and real estate agent report that not much has changed!

It’s still relatively early in the process still, but one thing is for certain, our clients in the escrow, title and mortgage industry are among the most resilient, hardest working people out there. They find a way to adapt and they will succeed in keeping the real estate industry and, thus, our economy running smoothly.  Yes, TRID is a major change to an already complicated process, it’s just that our escrow and title professionals have made it look easy, like Y2K.