Posted by MonicaFL on 7/24/07 11:54pm
Msg #201636

Received a call from a broker

who wanted to hire me to sell reverse mortgages for him. He offered me quite a tidy little sum if I wanted to work for him. He also made the statement "well, you could even close the loan yourself because you are a notary! I also asked him where he was figuring my commission from - the broker's origination fee? he said yes, but that would be net - after the fees. I said, What fees? He said oh there are all kinds of fees. I then said to him - well, you as the broker probably never ever see the HUD statements and all ofthe fees that are already listed on them - and no where have I ever seen a fee charged by the broker other than the origination fee. He then said - oh! He then again said, well, you could save money by doing the closing yourself. I said Not! First of all I wouldn't be the one paying the notary and secondly, If I acted as a LO then I couldn't notarize a loan for borrowers who I just enticed to refi or go with a reverse mortgage. He asked me why not. DUH. Its called "conflict of interest". (don't know if he even knew what that meant). He did say though that he would send me an e-mail breaking down my commission on a certain amount of money. This is going to be interesting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Reply by ReneeK_MI on 7/25/07 4:08am
Msg #201647

I don't know for sure about FL, but most states don't consider it a conflict for the L.O. as an employee to close/notarize their own loans. Often it's the lender or the broker that doesn't want that happening, not the state law.

It's also pretty standard for the broker to receive compensation - either out of the L.O. commission, or added separately onto the Hud. Same as a real estate agent has to pay part of his commission to the real estate broker he's working for. The broker has to be paid - unless they're just doing loans out of the goodness of their heart.

Reply by hp/MD on 7/25/07 6:30am
Msg #201649

I remember when I got the line of credit from Bank of America, they wanted me to go to the bank, their own employee closed the loan and notorized the the document. I don't know if this is related to this subject.

Reply by PAW on 7/25/07 8:38am
Msg #201664

From what the DFS (Dept of Financial Services) representative told us in 'broker school', that we cannot close and notarize our own loans as there is a direct financial interest in the transaction. (FSA §117.107(12)) We can perform the closing with the title company's approval, but an impartial, unbiased notary would be required to notarize the signatures to the transaction. However, a broker is not considered to have a direct financial interest if closing a partners or other employee's file. IOW, any employee of a brokerage or lender can close and notarize company loans and files as long as they are not the broker or LO receiving the commission.

Reply by Calnotary on 7/25/07 9:53am
Msg #201671

The other day I asked the same question. In my case I went to the borrower's home and I had to leave because the LO(she was at the signing) could not convinced the borrowers since everything was wrong on the loan. I had to leave and I was called later on to come back to notarize the docs.

I wasn't available when they needed me and the LO notarized everything. I think is a conflict of interest.
Just imagine that the ID does not match the name or the wife has her maiden name if this is an unethical notary and also a LO she/he will notarize even without proper ID, there is a few thousand dollars in the line if he/she doesn't do it.

Reply by Michael/FL on 7/25/07 10:47am
Msg #201688

Yes in Florida us LO's cannot notarize our own deals because of conflict of interest as stated by Paul and Sylvia. I have run into a couple LO's who got into trouble because they were notarizing their own loan packages. Big NO NO

Oh do tell if there are any other exciting calls from this broker Sylvia I could use a laugh! Goes to school to become a broker and still doesn't know the LAW; it's brokers like that who have made the market fumble as it has!

Reply by Sylvia_FL on 7/25/07 11:14am
Msg #201694

Michael - it was Monica - not me:) n/m

Reply by Michael/FL on 7/25/07 11:44am
Msg #201701

Re: Michael - it was Monica - not me:)

Haha I'm sorry I got you two ladies confused for a second