When must the servicer submit an initial escrow account statement to the borrower?

A loan servicer must submit an initial escrow account statement to the borrower at settlement or within 45 days of settlement.

Question:  When must the servicer submit an initial escrow account statement to the borrower?

Answer:  At settlement or within 45 days of settlement

What must be included in the annual escrow statement submitted by the servicer?

What must be included in the annual escrow statement submitted by the servicer?

A servicer is required to submit a statement to the borrower at least once for a 12-month period, and within 30 days of the conclusion of such period, a statement clearly itemizing the amount of the current monthly payment, portion of the monthly payment being placed in the escrow account, and the total amount paid out of the escrow account during the period.

Questions:  What must be included in the annual escrow statement submitted by the servicer?

Answer:  Total amount paid out of the account

If a lender has either an affiliate relationship or a direct or beneficial ownership interest of more than one percent in a provider of settlement services and the lender directly or indirectly refers business to the provider, this relationship is referred to as a what kind of business arrangement?

When a lender has either an affiliate relationship or a direct or beneficial ownership interest of more than one percent in a provider of settlement services and the lender directly or indirectly refers business to the provider, this relationship is referred to as a what (type) business arrangement?

Answer:  Controlled

A violation of Section 8 may result in a maximum fine of?

Violating Section 8 will result in a maximum fine of up to $10,000.

Question:  A violation of Section 8 may result in a maximum fine of?

Answer:  $10,000

What year did RESPA become effective?

RESPA was approved and enacted by congress in 1974. The first year RESPA went into effect was in 1975.

Question: What year did RESPA become effective?

Answer:  1975

How long does the servicer have to acknowledge a borrower’s complaint in writing?

According to Section 6 of RESPA, borrowers who have a problem with the servicing of their loan (including escrow account questions), should contact their loan servicer in writing, describing the nature of their complaint. The servicer must acknowledge the complaint in writing within 20 business days of receipt of the complaint.

Question: How long does the servicer have to acknowledge a borrower’s complaint in writing?

Answer: 20 business days

TREC online course requirements for first time license renewal, is it CE or SAE and how many hours do I need?

Two years have quickly passed since I received my real-estate certificate.  I have done several transaction successfully and have enjoyed both the business and making some extra money on the side doing real-estate in Houston and Katy.

I have received a notice from TREC that my license is expiring soon and I have to take some required CE (continuing education) or MCE (mandatory continuing education) courses in order to qualify for renewal.

As of the time of this writting, Friday, July 14, 2017, I was surprise how confusing it was to try to find out WHAT COURSE and HOW MANY HOURS do I need to take exactly?

Here are a few of the different iterations:

• 18 hours CE (consisting of 10 electives + 8 legal update courses)
• 90 hours of CE / SAE (consisting of 30 + 30 + 30 hours of real-estate law courses)
• 98 hours of CE / SAE (consisting of 90 hours above + 8 legal update courses)
• 270 hours SAE package courses
• 278 hours SAE package courses

After looking at all of those conflicting information ... I was frustrated and decided to go to TREC website to check my status (what courses TREC have recorded in their database that I have taken).

I went to https://www.trec.texas.gov and went to the License Holder Search

The result looks like this:

Obviously I have forgotten how many hours of courses was required 2-years-ago when I first took the exam to become a realtor. After summing up my hours, I realized that I have completed 180 hours.

Since TREC website said I have to complete 278 SAE hours in order to renew, this starting to make sense because 

180 hours completed already  +   98 hours of SAE = 278 hours exactly!!!

Once I know this information then I can start looking for which course to exactly shop for an eventually buy it.

I shopped around for about 15 min and found the cheapest price to be $288.75 from 360Training.com.

Well actually 360Training.com is very tricky, if you go straight to their website, they want to charge you $385 for the same course. If you sign-up your email they will send you 10% off coupon. 

However I found one of their subsidiary website Online Classroom

and they had the same exact course for the same price but they have 25% OFF Coupon (the coupon code that I used was SUN25), so I ended up buying my SAE 98 hours course from Online Classroom which is actually powered by 360Training anyways for $288.75 (see the details for the courses I bought below)

I hope this helps someone to figure out what you need to do to renew your TREC sales person license for the first time. :-)