Posted by Soni Weiss on 9/10/12 7:15pm
Msg #433826

I am new and need advice

I got a call at 3:20 today asking if I could do a closing at 6:30, drive time this area would be 45 min. Having had two bad experiences already I speciifically asked, three times, "do you have the documents ready to send?" She said yes. She confirmed the e mail and I waited. At 3:58 I called the company and told them I didn't have any confirmation or docs from them. She agian confirmed she had docs and after trying to send me info while I was on phone finally said that GoDaddy was having a problem. I use verizon and no one was having trouble getting through to me but her, but I gave her my alternate g mail address and she finally got something through there. It is now almost 4:30. I download one set and print them out, all 163 pages, and start going through them and notice the instructions say the HUD is inaccurate and it says in notes that signing should be aborted. I call and she says to disregard this. I asked is the HUD correct. She says yes. I get half way through looking at the documents as I put a flag on where I need to notarize and where they borrower needs to sign, as I said, I am new at this.....and find four complete sets of cancellation doc. with the date of 9/7 on them. O.K., don't know why so many but I can use option three. O.K. I move on and find that the first page that the borrow signs for the request for tax documents is missing. I search for it on the PDF and not there. It is now it close to 5:30. I call and ask to send me that document and she asks me have I printed them out and I said well yes, and she said that she needs to send me a new set. It took her 40 minutes to get them to me before because of her computer problems and I need 40+ min drive time. She said she would pay me a $25 printer fee. By the time I print these out, look over them it will be after 8:00 for sure probably closer to 9 from past experience when I get to borrowers house and I told her I could not do this signing.

Needles to say she was not happy...and said she would not pay me for what I printed and I said that was o.k. (I had only printed one copy for me to go over). She was paying $100+ but there is an old saying, that you teach people how to treat you. As far as I can see I could have changed the dates on the affidavits which for some reason they chose to type in and such. Had this been at 1 p.m. reprinting and staring over would have been o.k. with me but I don't feel like working for minium wage and getting home at 11 p.m.

She did not call the client to cancel with them and I got a phone call from them at 7:00. I told the borrower that there was problems with the documents and I would not be coming out but the loan company should be calling her to rearrange a time. Since I was going business with the signing company wasn't it their job? Then I just now got a call at 8:10 from the borrower saying the signing company called them and someone else was coming out and did I know anything about it. I said, well they must have gotten the papers fixed and made more arrangements.

Is this what you can expect from people who call you a couple hrs. before the clsoing.

Reply by CopperheadVA on 9/10/12 7:38pm
Msg #433831

Yes that can be typical. Once you have been in this business for a while you learn how to avoid some of the pitfalls, but I think we all had to learn some lessons the hard way - I know I did. I only accept last minute closings from my regulars now. Several years ago I realized that the last minute emergency closings, especially the ones at night, are the biggest PITA and most difficult to collect on. It's hard to say no to closings when you are new, but sometimes it's better for you to say no because last minute closings can turn into a mess like you had. I wonder what reputation that company has here on Notary Rotary?

And it's extremely common that there are multiple copies of the rescission document in the package. Each person who signs must receive two RTC copies each in their copy package. So if there are two signers, there needs to be four RTC's in their package that they keep.

Reply by Soni Weiss on 9/10/12 9:49pm
Msg #433845

Well this company has a very good rating and pays on time it says. the person most of the reviewers referred to is not who I talked to though. Maybe this person was having a bad day so I am not mentioning any names.

Reply by sueharke on 9/11/12 1:42am
Msg #433866

Congratulations, you are getting some great comments for a new person to this forum. You asked a great question and I hope the answers helped you.

Reply by JanetK_CA on 9/10/12 7:51pm
Msg #433833

You threw out lots of questions and I only have a little time, so I just throw out a couple of thoughts.

First, there WAS a problem with GoDaddy today. My personal domain (and email) is through them, so I was having trouble getting any emails, too, including docs. Fortunately, for some reason I was able to receive them on my Blackberry (but not in Outlook), so I just forwarded them to my Gmail account and was able to print from there. (It seems to be working again now.)

"...the first page that the borrow signs for the request for tax documents is missing."

Are you talking about the 4506T? I'm impressed that you noticed that was missing. I'm not sure that I would have - or that I would have called the client about it, if I did. That form is frequently signed by the borrowers in advance of the signing, so I suppose it's possible that it wouldn't be included again, although it nearly always is.

I didn't follow everything you said about the time, but you know what you can or cannot do. If I was available, I probably would have tried to work it out, if it was a client I wanted to keep hearing from. But I have a fast printer and don't bother flagging pages anymore, unless it's to be able to find certain ones quickly, so if I didn't have any other appointments, I think I would have been able to make it much sooner.

"As far as I can see I could have changed the dates on the affidavits which for some reason they chose to type in and such."

Scratching my head on this one, too. Did you mean the Right to Cancel forms? Yes (unless it's a B of A package), you do need to correct the dates in the body of the form for the transaction date and end of Rescission period, if necessary. But any other docs, there shouldn't be any need for dates to be changed. If docs aren't date sensitive, they should be left alone, and if they are, a redraw would be necessary. You couldn't just change them.

As for what to expect from a late call... that will depend on the company. Many people here will give you an emphatic YES! But I work with a few who nearly always call last minute, but they generally have documents and they are good for their word. Some even allow some flexibility in scheduling, letting me work it out with the borrowers. ('Course, I try very hard to be straight with them about what I can and can't reasonably handle.)

Hope this helps...

Reply by Soni Weiss on 9/10/12 9:40pm
Msg #433844

Thanks for the help here. I was missing the lst page of the W9 for the borrower; had the instruction page but not the document itself, 4 sets of HUD 1 documents, one dated 4th and the other the 6th both marked approved, and two others that were incomplete....and after going through all the documents I find that I only have page 1 of the Note and that is dated the 7th. They typed in the date of the 7th or the 4th on the Acknowledgment of owners avidavit and a some other documents. I literally had 4 complete sets (3 copies each for both borrowers) peppered through out the 160 pages. I think if I threw away some of the junk I would have had a 125 page document LOL

If you don't go over the documents before you take them out, what do you in this kind of situation? as in; When you have 4 different HUD 1, would you have just had the last one dated signed or do they have to execute or initial all of them? That is what I don't understand; how you handle the problems at 7:30 after everyone is off phone?

I really appreciate your knowledge and expereince and your time. Thank You

Reply by ikando on 9/10/12 10:00pm
Msg #433849

"Had this been at 1 p.m. reprinting and staring over would have been o.k. with me but I don't feel like working for minium wage and getting home at 11 p.m."

Soni, that statement is the reason I turn back jobs. As it was, you essentially spent from 3:20 to 8:00 "working" this opportunity. Not to mention the paper for printing. It's good that you went through the paperwork as you did, and great that you caught some of the discrepancies.

I think you'll do well as long as you keep in mind your comment about training people to respect you. Too often, as you've probably seen if you've been reading this forum, the companies that are the most difficult are usually also those that don't respect the notary's time and importance to the process.

Reply by SERVICIO on 9/10/12 11:25pm
Msg #433854

I have never had one as bad as yours. I print and run. At first I use to flag the pages, BIG waste of time! It is the signing companies responsibility to send me the correct documents. I tell them I have many appointments sometimes back to back and I am doing good to coordinate all the signings so that I can print all docs for all the signings without having to return to my office. Then at the signing table I go through them one page at a time. I am a paralegal and my mentors always said the least number of times you touch a document and still be efficient is more cost effective and helps your bottom line. So everything is done at the table except for packaging. But even my faxbacks are separated before I leave the borrowers home. Last week I had 5 signings to do in one day! Eventually you will make it to that level where you will have those days. I use to stress over the documents, not anymore! I make sure I am honest with the borrower, if I do not have docs I tell them... "at this time, I have not received your documents by email, if I do not receive them in time for our scheduled appointment I will call you back." I have receive more than a few late night signings and yes those always seem to be the worst! But you did better than me on this one, because I would have printed and left. More than a few times the docs are late. I just make it work as best I can.

Reply by CopperheadVA on 9/11/12 7:31am
Msg #433874

<< If you don't go over the documents before you take them out, what do you in this kind of situation? >>

It's rare that I print and run. I find that when I do that, the closing does not go as smoothly as it could. I always take the time to pull the several most imortant docs to the front of the package. I stack those on top so we sign those first: HUD, Payment Letter, Note, Escrow Acct Disclosure, RTC, TIL, DOT. That is my order but others do theirs in a slightly different order which is perfectly fine. Taking the time to do this, I have caught that the package is missing the RTC or TIL - if the package is msissing the HUD, TIL, RTC, Note or DOT, then I do not leave for the appointment until I have contacted TC and gotten those docs. I have had a couple packages over the years where the Note or DOT or RTC or TIL was missing, so it definitely can happen.

Soni, you could not have done that signing with only one page of the Note - you did good to recognize that. I have to say that document package sure sounded like a complete mess and is NOT the norm. As far as having four different versions of the HUD - yikes! Sometimes they are date/time stamped on the bottom, but sometimes not. I always presume that whatever documents the hiring party sends to me, that's what they want signed. But there should not be four different vesions of the HUD. Sometimes these companies think they they will just send everything in the file and the borrowers will willingly sign whatever it is - most borrowers would be very uncomfortable (and would probably refuse) signing four different HUD's and not knowing which was correct.