She said that while some companies offer a Spanish-translated application, the loan estimate and closing disclosure arrive in English.
“What happens when I send a loan estimate out that’s in English?” she said. “What happens when they need to sign their loan documents? That’s in English, and there’s only so much that I can explain to someone, and there’s only so much that you can run through ChatGPT. But imagine if our documents worked in their language.
“We’re asking people for $10,000, $20,000, $30,000, sometimes $100,000 of their money, depending on the home that they’re purchasing, but we can’t even give them their documents in the language that they speak and read.”
She also noted that one company she spoke with said they had documents in Spanish, but they charge points on the loan to translate them. So Spanish-speaking customers have to pay more than their English counterparts.
“They’re like, ‘Yeah, we know our rates are higher, but that’s the cost of it for them to be able to read in their language,’” Endter said. “They’re like, ‘Yeah, we charge two points almost on every deal.’ And I was like, ‘So what you’re telling me is, your way of helping them is by sending them to a lender that does docs in Spanish so that they can charge $20,000 more?’”
