Posted by Carolyn Breckenridge on 4/6/12 6:35pm
Msg #417190

Title Companies

I am not sure what is with the title companies lately.

I did a VA closing last night. I got to the borrowers' home and the air was out. Mind you they just bought this new house two years ago on a VA. Mr. borrower decides he is going to read all the documents. Now, I have been in the title company industry for over 30 years and I know all the tricks to get this closing moving. No, he sits and reads anyway. No, problem this is his time. I get to the title company's documents and they are copies of copies of copies and they are all blank. Nothing is filled out. I thought we were in the age of computers. I would not sign these like this and I did not expect them to. Over two hours in this closing...and boy was it hot in there.

This morning I did another closing and it was the same thing the title company's docs are blank. Is anyone else experiencing this?

Reply by BarbaraL_CA on 4/6/12 6:47pm
Msg #417194

Is it a full moon? I've had a heck of a day!!!!!

Reply by 101livescan on 4/6/12 7:28pm
Msg #417200

Tell me about it...Barbara, I had a normal refi/cashout loan with a CU, then a refi on Florida property with two 82 yo happily married folks. She recently had breast cancer surgery, and after coming out of anesthesia, she had "short term memory" issues. Cutest, sweetest couple. She knows what day it is, understands the refi transaction, but couldn't remember how to write her four word name. It was a two hour session. I really had a great time, and honkered down to be patient and enjoy the process, because they were so sweet and needed someone to be patient with them. I was glad when it was over!

THEN, after 1.5 hours, the RI Title company calls me in the signing to tell me need to fax in the ENTIRE 200+ package because it is refi of second home condo. NO WAY...I'm on a mission to take as much of 3 days off as possible. Why wasnt the scope of work communicated to me when the signing was presented? Don't you just love these last minute detours. Unbelievable.

Well, I went directly to FEDEX and shipped it for Monday Delivery. Ridiculous....trying to pass that off on a three day weekend. Good Grief.

BTW loans for REFI CONDO/Second Homes are nearly impossible in FL due to recent economic conditions of these properties.

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE....on my way to dinner and the spa tomorrow. Need a full body massage in the worst way.

Reply by BarbaraL_CA on 4/6/12 8:22pm
Msg #417204

Confirmed - FULL MOON - April 6, 2012, explains it all n/m

Reply by janCA on 4/6/12 8:54pm
Msg #417209

Re: Confirmed - FULL MOON - April 6, 2012, explains it all

I was just asking myself this question this afternoon. A lot of nut cases out there on the road.

Reply by ikando on 4/6/12 10:13pm
Msg #417214

"the RI Title company calls me in the signing to tell me need to fax in the ENTIRE 200+ package because it is refi of second home condo."

I think you did the right thing by just sending it. What are the chances that anyone at that Title company would be where the fax machine is on Friday? Very slim to none. Probably won't see them til Monday anyway.

So hope you enjoyed your dinner and the spa later.

Reply by JanetK_CA on 4/7/12 8:46pm
Msg #417264

Carolyn, you just spelled out one of my pet peeves, too. I've been seeing stuff like that for a very long time, and I've always found it to be an internal frustration, but lately it seems I'm finding lots of savvy borrowers commenting on it, as well. Some just flat out refuse to cooperate, but most often exclaim that they already provided all that info.

Then you have the lender packages (is it more lately or does it just feel that way to me...) that over and over again have forms that are clearly irrelevant to that particular assignment. For example, is there any reason to have a disclosure about a newly constructed property in a refi package?! Or an escrow waiver form in a package with an impound account? Or worse, an impound authorization in a package with no impound required or desired.

To me, lots of it just seems like laziness. I realize that it's just how things are and it's not up to me to question their process. But when borrowers notice and are commenting on the same things, it certainly doesn't make them look good. And then we have to do our tap dance to try to cover for them and get borrowers to cooperate.

Thanks for giving me an opportunity to vent on this! I feel so much better now!

Reply by Lee/AR on 4/7/12 9:06pm
Msg #417265

Agree, Janet...docs are sloppier

Way back when I first started this biz, seemed to me that each and every package (even from same lender/different B) was tailored precisely to the situation. That concept began going south during the boom years, but now it looks like they just toss it all in the package in a sort of 'one size fits all' theory. I do think it makes them look foolish to the Bs--who most definitely DO notice because there are so many inclusions that simply don't fit the situation.

Reply by ReneeK_MI on 4/8/12 6:46am
Msg #417276

Lee - one big change that explains this

'Back in the day' - as in like the '90's, the industry was still using DOS. Generating closing pkgs was a lot more work, not so much 'global population' of data and you'd hand-select each/every doc you needed for that particular loan.

Now, the software is much less 'user friendly' in that IT picks, and you have little say in the matter. It does cut down on errors/omissions - almost everything is globally populated, and everything you might possibly need (key word: possibly) is going to be included. That prevents the possibility of something being missed - which happened, when you were hand-selecting each choice from hundreds of 'possible' choices.

Depending on how docs are delivered to us - we might get the full, unedited Lender's Pkg that includes 20 pages of Closing Instructions, Assignments, the Allonge, Tax certs, etc ... and the docs that MIGHT have applied, but in the end may not: inapplicable Waivers being the case in point.

It's not necessarily the laziness of anyone. Lender's rely upon TC's to 'edit' the full pkg for presentation to the borrower. TC's know how to do this.

If the TC desires to maintain the best possible & most efficient safe-guarding of the pkg, they will hand over the entire pkg to you direct from the Lender's site. Alternatively, they can download the pkg themselves, prepare it specifically for the borrower, and then use their own safe-guarding protocols to re-pkg it to send to you (or yet another 3rd party).

Reply by Lee/AR on 4/8/12 12:37pm
Msg #417300

Thanks! Good to know the 'reason'-such as it is.

Guess 'better safe than sorry' applies here.

Reply by ReneeK_MI on 4/8/12 6:21am
Msg #417275

Copies of copies of copies ...

Always one of my pet peeves! Back in the day when docs were actually typed docs that got xerox'ed, I was always 'that' person who re-typed new master-copies in my spare time, just to retain a strangle-hold on my sanity. (P.S. - it didn't work!)