Cannot increase at all
Everything in section A, everything in section B, and transfer taxes. If these go up between the Loan Estimate and the Closing Disclosure without a valid changed circumstance, the lender has to refund the difference.
Comparing offers
The document is standardised so you can do this yourself.
A Loan Estimate has the same three pages, the same lettered sections and the same order at every lender in the country. That was deliberate. Most of the value of a second opinion is simply that somebody finally read page two — and there is no reason that somebody cannot be you.
- Demonstration — nothing is sent
- No document upload, on purpose
- Every section explained
Page two, line by line
Six lettered sections, and only one of them is really the lender.
People compare the big number at the bottom, which mixes the lender's charges with the county's fees, your insurance and your own money going into escrow. Separate them and the comparison becomes obvious.
| Section | Whose number it is | Can you shop? | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|---|
| Origination charges | The lender | No — but it is the lender’s own price | This is what they charge to make the loan, including any discount points. It is the single most comparable number on the document, because it is entirely their decision. Two lenders quoting the same rate with different section A totals are not quoting the same loan. |
| Services you cannot shop for | Vendors the lender chooses | No | Appraisal, credit report, flood certification. Broadly similar everywhere, and a lender who marks them up is telling you something. |
| Services you can shop for | Vendors you may choose | Yes | Usually title work and settlement. The lender must give you a written list of providers, and you may use somebody else. Large differences here often say more about the local title market than about the lender. |
| Taxes and government fees | The county and the state | No | Recording fees and transfer taxes. Identical between lenders for the same property. A difference here is an error, not a deal. |
| Prepaids | Timing, not the lender | No | Interest from closing to the end of the month, the first year of homeowners insurance, sometimes the first tax instalment. These depend on your closing date and your insurer, and they are not a lender cost at all. |
| Initial escrow deposit | Your own money, held | No | A cushion the servicer holds to pay tax and insurance when they fall due. It is not a fee: it is your money moving into a different account. Comparing two lenders on cash to close without separating this out is the most common mistake people make. |
Page three is the one people skip. It carries three figures designed for exactly this comparison: what the loan will have cost you in five years, the APR, and the total interest percentage. They are on every Loan Estimate, in the same place, and they are the fastest way to see whether a lower rate is being paid for with something else.
What the rules already protect
Three tolerance buckets.
Costs on a Loan Estimate are not all equally binding. Knowing which bucket a line sits in tells you when an increase at closing is normal and when it is refundable.
May rise by up to ten per cent, in total
Recording fees, and the section C services if you used a provider from the lender’s written list. The ten per cent applies to the group as a whole, not to each line.
No limit
Prepaid interest, homeowners insurance, the initial escrow deposit, and section C services if you chose a provider that was not on the list. These move for reasons that have nothing to do with the lender.
What this form is
Numbers typed in, not a document uploaded.
A real second-opinion form asks you to upload the Loan Estimate itself. This one asks for the eight or nine figures on it instead, and it does that for a reason: there is no server behind this site, so an upload control would be a lie — and your Loan Estimate carries your name, your property and your finances on three pages.
Typing the numbers has a side effect worth having. By the time you have found the note rate, the points, section A and the lock expiry on your own document, you have done most of the comparison yourself.
No claim is made here about how much anyone typically saves, how quickly anyone replies, or how often a review finds money. Those numbers are unverifiable, and on a fictional lender they would be pure invention.
Nothing you type is transmitted. Nobody reviews it. Nobody will contact you.
Nothing is reviewed, and nothing is sent. There is no upload field on this form on purpose — please do not try to send your Loan Estimate anywhere from this page. The fields below validate and are then discarded.
A real reviewer would now line yours up against theirs.
On the same lock period, the same loan amount and the same day, with section A next to section A — and would tell you plainly if your existing offer was the better one, because a review that can only ever say "switch" is a sales channel rather than a review.
This one did none of that. Your figures were validated in the browser and discarded. Nothing left the page, nobody read it, and nobody will contact you.
Questions
About second opinions.
Do I have to send anyone my Loan Estimate?
No — and you can do the comparison yourself. The document is standardised precisely so it can be read side by side: same three pages, same lettered sections, same order, from every lender. The most valuable half hour in the whole process is putting two of them next to each other on a table.
Why does this page not let me upload the PDF?
Because there is nowhere for it to go. This site is a set of static files with no server behind it, so an upload control would be theatre — and a Loan Estimate carries your name, your property and your finances. A demonstration has no business asking for that document, so it asks for the handful of numbers on it instead, and then discards those too.
What actually differs between two lenders?
The rate, the points, and section A. Almost everything else is either fixed by the county, set by your closing date, or is your own money moving into escrow. When a second opinion finds real money, it is nearly always in those three places, or in the discovery that a different program fits better.
Does asking for a second opinion hurt my credit?
Comparing a document you already have costs nothing and involves no credit inquiry. If you go on to apply with the second lender, that is a hard inquiry — but mortgage inquiries inside a short shopping window are scored as a single event, which is the whole point of the exception.
What if my closing date is close?
Say so first. Switching lenders late is genuinely risky, and an honest answer is sometimes that the comparison is useful only as leverage with your current lender. That is still worth having: a written quote from somebody else is the most effective thing you can put in front of a loan officer who has room to move.
What if the offer I already have is a good one?
Then you have learned that, which was the point. A second opinion whose only possible answer is "switch to us" is not a second opinion, it is a sales channel. This demonstration cannot give you either, being fictional — but the question is the right one to ask whoever does.
Do the arithmetic yourself while you are here
Two of the questions a second opinion answers are pure arithmetic, and both calculators run in your browser: whether the points on your estimate pay for themselves before you are likely to move, and what the payment actually looks like once tax, insurance and mortgage insurance are added to it.
This is a demonstration website for a fictional lender. Copperline Home Loans does not exist, is not licensed anywhere, and cannot lend. Every rate, payment, schedule and person shown is illustrative. Nothing here is a quote, an offer, or a commitment to lend, and no form on this site sends, stores or transmits anything.