Keith Polaski is the principal/COO of radius financial group, inc.

Boston Agent (BA): How has the transition been, for radius, to the new TRID regulations? What kind of changes did radius make to accommodate them?

Keith Polaski (KP): The industry, thus radius, had many, many months to prepare for TRID, and despite this time, many experienced technical difficulties with their loan origination systems or third party document preparation providers.

The first three to four weeks had us fighting lots of fires and getting things corrected from a technology standpoint. Our employees worked tirelessly to make sure we had no delays in our closings and that things were done correctly according to the new TRID rules. When you think about it, the industry had 25-plus years’ experience with GFE’s and HUD-1’s – plenty of intellectual capital to have it on auto-pilot. With TRID, we had zero experience, and the regulations are not so clear that they could contemplate every loan and closing scenario. It will take us time to gain that same level of expertise.

BA: Do you think the industry reaction to TRID was overblown, in retrospect?

KP: I do not believe that the industry reaction to TRID was overblown. If you are on the outside looking in, it may appear that way, but as the saying goes, “you don’t want to know how the sausage is made.” That is what the lenders and radius had to deal with. Radius was committed to not having the homebuyer experience be anything different due to TRID, and it was very hard work in the first few months.

Additionally, unless you are in the mortgage banking space, you would be unaware of the fact that a few large regional originators have been put out of business because they did not execute a successful implementation of TRID. Those firms and their employees would certainly dispute any claims of “overblown.”

BA: Are there any new changes/regulations on the horizon that agents should know about?

KP: The next major regulation to be coming out of the CFPB and the Dodd-Frank rules is major changes to the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA), and the amount of data that will need to be reported annually to the CFPB. While this regulation will be transparent, for the most part, to the consumer and real estate community, it is important to note because of the amount of personal data that will be going to the government. Many of us are concerned (the industry is voicing this) that much of this data collection will be in conflict with existing privacy laws at both the federal and state level.

Keith Polaski is the COO of radius financial group inc., which he co-founded in 1999 alongside radius co-founder and president Sarah Valentini. With more than 20 years of experience in the mortgage lending industry, Keith has consistently strived to offer a better mortgage experience, and has developed radius into one of New England’s premier mortgage banks. Headquartered in Norwell, radius has steadily grown its footprint throughout New England since company inception, and currently has seven satellite offices throughout the region.