Washington Report

Advocacy Updates from Washington D.C.

FHA Allows More Electronic Signatures

On Jan. 30, HUD announced that it will now accept electronic signatures on most documents involved in FHA mortgage insurance, mortgage servicing, loss mitigation and FHA insurance claims.  In a statement, NAR 2014 President Steve Brown said:  “NAR welcomes HUD’s announcement that FHA will now accept electronic signatures on most documents. . . Many Realtors® use e-signatures to streamline real estate transactions and prevent fraud. NAR has been working with industry and agency leaders to promote greater acceptance and usage of e-signatures which we believe will soon become the new normal in all documents and transactions.”

The HUD Announcement came two days after NAR convened a second Electronic Signatures Summit meeting, bringing together three dozen representatives of government, lenders, real estate and related industries and electronic signature vendors to discuss ways to foster greater acceptance and usage of electronic signatures, which were first authorized by federal law in 2000.  The FHA announcement gives a major boost to that ongoing effort and will serve as a model for other actors in the mortgage arena.

FHA Mortgagee Letter

HUD Press Release

Notice: The information on this page may not be current. The archive is a collection of content previously published on one or more NAR web properties. Archive pages are not updated and may no longer be accurate. Users must independently verify the accuracy and currency of the information found here. The National Association of REALTORS® disclaims all liability for any loss or injury resulting from the use of the information or data found on this page.

Advertisement