Posted by 1Notary1 on 10/26/12 9:29am
Msg #440496

Anyone..

ever heard of or done work for Empire Closings Corp. out of FL? No info on SC. TIA

Reply by Stephanie Santiago on 10/26/12 11:36am
Msg #440525

Google for results..... n/m

Reply by 1Notary1 on 10/26/12 12:08pm
Msg #440539

Re: Google for results.....

Google for results? Really? WOW. Impressive remarks.

Reply by Tim_Mphs/TN on 12/26/12 11:24pm
Msg #447844

Empire Closings

Jack P. Jones from Empire Closings called me today with a last-minute closing 1 county away. He agreed to my quoted fee and was very pleasant on the phone.

After he repeated for the 3rd time how they have so many closings and they were so thrilled with my work that they will definitely be using me again for anything in my area, a little red flag went up and I looked again at the emails he had sent. None of them have an actual address for Empire Closings - just his name, 1 other name, his cell phone and 2 email addresses (one on gmail and one on yahoo). This despite me specifically asking him to include full company details with the initial work order. Oh, that "order" was the docs; I had to ask again for the borrower contact info.

So, I googled Empire Closings. It seems there is an inactive corporation in FL (only listed officer being Jack P. Jones, address being an apartment) called Empire Closings and something.

Were it not for the fact that the lender is one I have a dealt with many times before, I would be very worried about whether I will get paid. As it is, I was unable to ship the docs back tonight & I am worried enough that I intend to call Mr. Jones in the morning to ask him about this company.

Look for an update here after that.

Reply by Tim_Mphs/TN on 12/26/12 11:39pm
Msg #447850

Re: Empire Closings

Okay, that's what I get for taking 2nd hand sources, instead of going to the main source.

The State of Florida lists both an inactive Empire Closings & something, Inc., AND an ACTIVE Empire Closings, Corporation. The Empire Closings Corporation apparently was just opened in 9-8-2011; its 2012 annual report was filed on 4-22-2012. Address given is 1991 Brady Grove Road, Titusville FL 32796. Registered Agent is Jack P. Jones at the same address.

So, it is a corporation, not just a dba, as I incorrectly stated in my message above.

Otherwise, what I said above still stands -- the phone number is his cell phone, they don't have an address on their emails, and the effusive praise and promises routine makes me wonder about them. I guess I am just paranoid.

Oh, they don't have a website, or, if they do, it is not coming up using the usual search engines.

My best guess is they were incorporated under the longer name, something happened and they re-incorporated under the shorter name. Whether that something is bad for notaries or just bad for them, I can not say.

I still plan to speak with Mr. Jones tomorrow before shipping the docs back. We shall see what he says about his company(ies).

Reply by Tim_Mphs/TN on 1/14/13 10:11pm
Msg #450449

Re: Empire Closings

Update to this. I did speak with Jack the day after I posted the above. He stated that the reason he has 2 corporations with similar names is he trusted the wrong person to file his annual report & pay the filing fee, so it became inactive. He said the State of Florida charges more to reactivate a corp that missed the filing deadline than to charter a new one, so he just chartered a new one with a shorter name. He also said he was moving from Titusville to Orlando, so the address on file with the St of FL might not be correct.

His check arrived today. The check on the address is in Titusville, but the one on the envelope is in Orlando.

Since he paid in under 30 days, even though the closing was messy (as one other person mentioned in this forum quite some time back), I would give him 4 stars and yes, I would work for him again.