What Am I So Afraid of Anyway?

Yesterday I was talking with someone in the business who lives and works in the Kansas City metro.  After some discussions of the KC market and trading updates of people we both know and have worked with over the years, we got onto the subject of RESPA Reform and the new HUD-1 form.   We talked about the upcoming changes and how different the new form is from today’s HUD-1.  And I caught myself talking with a little bit of nostalgia about what will soon be the Old Form.  We traded war stores of learning to draw up a HUD-1 on an old DOS based system (thankfully I only had to do HUDs on the typewriter on a few occasions).  I said “I could produce a HUD, back in the day, bleary-eyed at midnight (yep, I have the divorce papers to prove it) with a sandwich in one hand and a Diet Coke in the other.  I didn’t even have to think about it most of the time.”    That’s when my colleague said “I guess that’s all going to change, isn’t it?”  Yes, it is.  And that’s okay.  Sure the old ways of doing business are familiar, and in some ways that old HUD-1 form is kind of like an old friend.  But it doesn’t offer much in the way of innovation, change, or new opportunities.   Even though I like the familiarity of it, I don’t like being painted with the stained brush of consumer doubt that has grown out of this mortgage meltdown mess.  And I sure didn’t like being at the closing table when a borrower’s loan and closing costs were much higher than anticipated.    So, if the new RESPA Rule can help improve things, even just a bit … then I’m all for it.  Sure it means I have to learn new things and I won’t be as confident in the beginning.  And yes, there are things that will need improved upon along the way.  But, at the core I’m an optimist… and sometimes we need to move on and embrace what lies ahead.  If we stand in resistance to everything, we stand in favor of nothing.