When we provide borrowers with a written list of settlement service providers (as required by RESPA), should the list include all service providers in our entire region, or can we provide county-specific lists to customers, with different lists for each county?

While RESPA requires loan originators to provide borrowers with a “written list of settlement services providers at the time of the GFE, on a separate piece of paper” (24 CFR Appendix C—Instructions for Completing Good Faith Estimate (GFE) Form), we are not aware of any laws or regulations that touch on the format of such a list.

However, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has published a Frequently Asked Questions document on its website, which states that “[t]he list should contain settlement service providers that are likely available to provide the settlement services for the borrower” in a response to question on providing a national list of settlement service providers (versus a list narrowed by providers in a certain locality). See HUD’s RESPA FAQs, “GFE – Written list of providers,” p. 12.