Posted by Mindy_WA on 4/7/06 10:14pm
Msg #112039

There goes the REFERRALS for us!!

I am peeved that Brian & I have worked hard to be professional and perform a consistently excellent service, and one LO can potentially ruin our in town reputation among the other notaries.

I went to a closing last evening where the LO told the bwr that the payment would be $xxxx.xx. Bwr was of another ethnicity. I got the impression that this bwr was struggling to understand what was going on. I went through the docs just as I do with any other closing. "Here is the Note, it is recorded with the county and goes over your loan terms. It shows your loan amount, your note interest rate, the payment amount, which doesn't include taxes & insurance...." Bwr said, " wait, I can't afford more than $xxxx.xx each month."

I told her to call the LO.

Here's where the signing when down the tubes. She called the LO and the LO was upset that I showed her what her docs said. He smoothed things over with bwr and said that he would change the docs and to reschedule the closing. We worked out a time for today. I got a call this afternoon from the SS stating that the Bwr didn't want me to come back, because she was upset with me about the previous night!!! I told the SS what happened and they requested that I write an e-mail and put all the info in. If this wasn't a case of predatory lending, I don't know what is. This poor bwr had no idea how to read the docs and didn't even know that they had her on an interest only loan!

The whole time she was telling the LO that she cannot afford a higher payment and that she can't do the loan. Too bad my hands were tied on this, wish I could have told her the whole story, but I feared that I would be crossing the lines of "advising". I know that the bwr didn't request that I not come back, because she worked out the time with me & never indicated she was upset with me.

I'm sure that the SS told the new notary what the deal was with us..." that the bwr didn't want us back". There aren't very many SA's here in town and that's one that won't be referring us when he's too busy.

Not to mention, the SS sent the order over again to us, with the other SA's name on it. Then proceeded to send it on to this SA with our name on it. There goes the referrals!!

Grrrr! End of Rant!

Reply by pan/nd on 4/7/06 11:12pm
Msg #112042

Maddening, yes. Referrals gone? Maybe..maybe not.

But, I would have done the same thing.

Remember, there are people in hospitals who would gladly trade places with you.

What good is a million bucks if can't live awhile to spend it?

Reply by CaliNotary on 4/8/06 12:07am
Msg #112046

"Remember, there are people in hospitals who would gladly trade places with you.

What good is a million bucks if can't live awhile to spend it?"

And there are starving children in Africa, women being raped, people in jail for crimes they didn't commit, conjoined twins and crack babies.

What exactly does this have to do with the original post?

Reply by Jenny_CA on 4/8/06 12:31am
Msg #112049

Re: Mindy

If that is the way the lender operates and based on what you wrote you probably wouldn't be comfortable doing signings for them anyways.

There is a lender that I have done 3 signings for , same type of loan, interest only. For the third signing the borrowers asked alot more questions then the lender expected and afterwards he told me in an exasperated voice " Why do you have to go into so much detail?, you just need to tell them where to sign. So much work has gone into setting up the loan by the time we send it to you "

I told him that I was not there to sell the loan and that yes, if I know for a fact that the people I am dealilng with can't read what they are signing I am going to make sure they know what the facts are before they sign. I added that I was impartial and do not gasp or cheer at their loans and that if they don't like how I work they could find someone else.

Lately I have been contemplating what I will do if they call again, I can be impartial I just don't like someone thinking they are going to use me because they think I'll just "point and have them sign". To me his statement was like as if I had been asked to backdate.

Good luck to you , keep your chin up you have done nothing wrong.

Reply by Mindy_WA on 4/8/06 1:33am
Msg #112063

Re: Mindy...Thanks Jenny & all!

Just needed conformation that I didn't do anything wrong. I knew it, but sometimes, you just need that impartial person to look over what happened...and reconfirm what you already knew.

I feel really bad for the borrower in this case. Hopefully, the other notary was not just a "point & sign" kind of person. I have been thinking about this all evening just praying that she didn't get "ripped off"...somehow I know (from the lender) that she did. Just SAD...wish there was something I COULD do.

Reply by MichiganAl on 4/8/06 1:35am
Msg #112064

Mindy, I've lost some profitable business sticking to my ethics. I believe that in the long run, my business is better for it. You did your job, you did it correctly. When Mr. LO goes down in a fiery blaze (and he will), you'll be the one left standing.

Reply by Mindy_WA on 4/8/06 1:42am
Msg #112066

Re: MichiganAl

You are so right! I know that, but it infuriates (sp?) me that these people are allowed to stick it to SO many people before they "go down". I sit in signings often times, thinking, wow! these terms SUCK! But, I always remind myself that I don't know what the credit issues are and such...apparently there is something here this borrower likes....????! I just know, I wouldn't get roped into a 5 year interest only loan with $10,000 closing costs and 10% interest. I would rather suck it up and live on "rice & beans, beans & rice" (quoting Dave Ramsey) before I go down in flames!

Reply by Ndwa on 4/8/06 2:08am
Msg #112072

I totally agree with Al that ethics and standards are what separate us as a business in the long run.

Reply by Becca_FL on 4/8/06 8:08am
Msg #112099

>>>"Here is the Note, it is recorded with the county and goes over your loan terms.<<<

When I worked for a TC in CA, we closed some loans in WA. As far as I remember, the Note was NEVER recorded in the public record. I am not aware of any state that records the Note. Could it be that you are confussed? Just how long have you been using the above script and mis-informing your borrowers? I would not refer any business your way based on the above quote.

Reply by Mindy_WA on 4/8/06 2:52pm
Msg #112211

Re: yup, Becca you're right... n/m

Reply by NCLisa on 4/8/06 8:15am
Msg #112101

I had a closing a few weeks ago. 1st & 2nd that was one of the worst loans I've ever seen. It also violated NC's predatory lending laws that do not allow balloon payment loans. The 1st was for $140,000, with a ballon payment of $118,000 after 30 years. The second was almost as bad, after 15 years, the balloon payment was only $5000 less than the original principal. I was there with the borrowers for 1.5 hours, they tried calling their loan agent at home, cell, work, etc. Ofcourse no answer. so the borrowers didn't sign. I left, notified the title company via email of the outcome, and told them that this loan violated our predatory lending laws. They haven't called me again, and I'm really not upset about it, because every loan they've sent me in the last 2 years have been so screwed up that I've had to go back with new sets of docs no less than 3 times each.

Reply by PAW on 4/8/06 8:37am
Msg #112105

>>> It also violated NC's predatory lending laws that do not allow balloon payment loans. <<<

This statement is not entirely true. Balloon payment loans are still acceptable under the new NC predatory lending laws. The law prohibits, ***in high-cost home loans***, the financing of fees, balloon payments, negative amortization, and lending without regard to a homeowner's ability to repay, ***where high-cost was defined generally as loans with fees in excess of 5% or APRs over the federal law trigger level*** (which is currently more than 8% above comparable US Treasury securities).

Reply by NCLisa on 4/8/06 12:38pm
Msg #112190

And this loan violated the states predatory lending laws. The origination fee was over $6000 and there were thousands of dollars of other fees. To make things worse, the title company fees on this first and second combined were over $3000. NC is supposed to have the lowest closings costs in the country. If they'd had a local attorney close this, the closing fee including title search would have been $450 for the 1st and $200 for the second with title insurance not more than $200 for both loans.

It's a shame that there are so many sleazy MB's out there.