A few months ago, I was sent in for a refi of an equity line to a fixed rate 2nd. Young couple in a brand new house. They were talking about why they were refinancing because the equity line rate kept going up & up. I said, "yes, a lot of customers are converting to a fixed rate these days"
They started talking about their First Mortgage and how it was fixed, but something they said made me think it sounded like an adjustable. Not going into detail, I told them they might want to review the note on their first Mortgage. He goes to his office, pulls out the file and all he has is a disk without a clue on how to look it up. It certainly wasn't my place to help him out in this regard.
This is a shame, because when I got home curiousity got the best of me and I looked at the county records, I saw that it was indeed an interest only, fixed/adjustable with a prepayment penalty. These young people thought they had a fixed rate 30 year mortgage period. I said nothing, but hoped they had the wherewithall to open the documents and find out what they actually had. If not, they are going to be in for a BIG surprise when this thing starts to adjust.
I found this lack of paperwork surprising. I said "OH, I heard some title companies were leaving CD's....saves some trees" I don't know if I would go this route unless the bank and/or title instructed me to. There are banking laws and regulations that I wouldn't have a clue about, some brought up here, and I'm sure they would need some kind of compliance paperwork in place to go this route. I am paid to print 2 sets of docs and that's what they get. Experiencing this, even if a title company instructed me to leave a disk only, I think I might still leave a printed Note, Mort, TIL, RTC and HUD. Guess I'll make that decision or ask permission from title when it happens.
Joan-OH |
