You cannot audit intentions, but you can price-check the result. Competitive numbers are the most reliable evidence a transaction was handled straight. An outside party cannot see everything that happened inside a transaction or every decision a loan officer made along the way. What you can check is the thing that actually matters to your wallet: take your rate and the fees you are being charged and compare them against a quote from another lender before you commit to anything. If your terms sit in the same range as a competing Loan Estimate, that is strong evidence you were treated fairly, whatever went on behind the scenes. If they are meaningfully worse with no good explanation, that is your signal to ask harder questions. Getting the comparison in hand before you sign is the single most useful safeguard you have. And you are never locked in. If something does not feel right partway through, you can switch lenders mid-process. Switching costs some time and possibly a duplicate appraisal or credit pull, but the leverage of being willing to walk is real.