Posted by Anonymous on 6/26/06 11:12pm
Msg #128774

notary no show

My husband and I were supposed to close a refi tonight on our property. I am not sure if I want my competition in my home or office. Being that I am relatively new to this industry (about 6 months) and we are in a very rural area, we opted to have the signing at a local coffee shop. Due to the rural area, the "local" coffee shop is 20 miles away. The signing was scheduled for 8:00 pm. The lender contacted us around 4:30 with some escrow questions, I asked her if she had found a notary and was assured that everything was all set.

At 6:30 SS called and asked me if I could do the signing. I asked them to check the name for the signing as I was sure it was our signing. It was. I know that there are not many notaries in the area and not many equipped to print docs. I offered to print the docs if they could provide the notary. We never heard anything so we hopped in the truck and drove to the meeting. At 8:30 I called SS. They were not able to find anyone to do the signing. If I can find someone - they will email me the docs. I explained that I had driven 20 miles and was sitting in the coffee shop. By the time I return home it will be too late to start calling notaries.

I returned home to a message on my business machine asking with my help in finding a notary to complete this process. I am new to this business but I am no dummy... This particular company is notorious for low pay and late pay. They called me last week and wanted me to do a signing earlier today 32 miles each way, e docs for $90. I gave them my fee. I was told that they could not negotiate but would call me if they decided to meet my fee.
I am sure that if they offered decent fees they would be able to schedule the signing all by themselves.

I could print the docs and bring them to the bank or other local notary and get everything taken care of, however - why should I? (other than the fact that we wanted to finish this up this week) With the "lowball" fees usually offered by this company, I don't feel that I should bear the burden of finding a notary to take care of this, especially since I already drove 40 miles and sat in the coffee shop for almost an hour.

I would welcome any thoughts on this situation as it will have to be dealt with in the morning.

TIA

Reply by lonestar_tx on 6/26/06 11:19pm
Msg #128777

The Lender could agree to compensate you by eating the cost of paying for the notary/SS to perform the closing. Due to your lost time, and your inconvenience; especially when you went out of your way to make it easier to find an able notary to perform closing, by providing docs.

Just my 2 cents....

Reply by Missy_Lulu on 6/27/06 12:06am
Msg #128799

Yes you would be doing the leg work for them and finding a notary to do it for free so they can keep an even larger profit and you can be certain they won't take the fee off your closing costs. If they asked you to help find a notary, find one out of your normal work area but make sure they don't charge you for the addt'l. Is it just one particular ss that is trying to find a notary? I had this same situation for my refi, I had tons of ss calling me to book the signing and had to tell them I couldn't it's my loan. The lender will HAVE to find someone to close it and they will probably need to solicit more than one ss. If an ss can't get it booked they usually go to another until someone can get it booked. Make them work for it.

Reply by MistarellaFL on 6/27/06 12:12am
Msg #128802

You might let title know about not rot.
Then they could un-hire the SS, and find one themselves.

Reply by Ernest__CT on 6/27/06 1:13am
Msg #128812

Wow! That's one of the worst I've heard.

You owe it to yourself to call your loan officer and report what happened. No hype, no hysteria. (You sound very rational and professional from your Post!) Just report the events as you reported them here. Be sure to name the signing service and, if possible, the induhvidual you talked to.

At the very least you should be compensated for the time and miles you already spent.

Best of luck!

Reply by sue_pa on 6/27/06 6:41am
Msg #128835

I am always amazed when people in this business who know what they are doing want a 'signing agent' to come do their own loan. When I refinanced my home, FASS contacted me to schedule the appt - I told them in no uncertain terms they were going to send me the docs and I would take care of the 'signing' myself. They didn't like it but they agreed. Perhaps because I am antsy and impatient but I cannot imagine having someone else go over my paperwork with me when I know that paperwork inside and out.

In your case, I'd be on the phone to my LO and I would have some fee reductions for their lack of communication with me

Reply by BrendaTx on 6/27/06 7:11am
Msg #128839

Re: notary no show - agree w/ sue

**In your case, I'd be on the phone to my LO and I would have some fee reductions for their lack of communication with me**

Yep.

Reply by Tracy Wright Sandy River Tax Service on 6/27/06 9:07pm
Msg #129104

Re: notary no show- thanks all for advice

I want to thank you all for your advice regarding this matter. You won't believe what the outcome has been...

LO contacts my husband this morning - he told LO talk to Tracy. I call LO back - he is apologetic, "can't believe this happened... blah, yada, blah... I'll call you back in 30 minutes."
He calls back - they will email docs to us - we can bring to bank, "will remove closing costs..yada, blah, blah". The docs show up 75 pages no HUD. I call him - get stuck in voice mail hell and email him. My husband and I agree to get necessary docs notarized ourselves and he will fax the hud over asap. This was 1:45 mind you. At 5:00 I start calling the LO as office closes at 5:15. I get stuck in voicemail hell again so I email him.

I cannot get through to the LO so I figure I will call national customer service and b*tch a little. National customer service somehow patches me through to the jack@ss' cell phone. He is horrified that I am on his cell phone and starts complaining that he is driving - he doesn't have any figures, Yada, whine, sniffle... I am PO'ed and state that we will use RTC unless we get a call back tonight. It has been almost 5 hours - no phone call.

I did receive an email from his saying we would have HUD maybe Wed but definitely by Thursday?!?!???

Now I know that I have not been smoking crack however, I cannot speak for the LO...