I hit some kind of wall after another morning’s rounds of the boards. I’m almost – but apparently not quite speechless. One of my personal failings/strengths (depends on the view) is the ability to see things within a very large perspective – ‘the view from the airplane’ instead of from the ground, albeit MY view from MY airplane.
Within every field, every company, every group, every profession, every HOME – there are people of integrity, and people of less scrupulous character. Makes the world more interesting. However, as a whole – I begin to feel that the financial & title industries realize the advantage of our ‘third party’ services is in the enabling we provide, to consummate business that might not be consummated otherwise. The disconnect that we provide between their hands and the consummation enables the Machine to turn a blind eye to a lot of things. See no evil, hear no evil, don’t ask, don’t tell.
You have the NNA rushing around the country, like the Acme of SA mass-production. You tell them to chin-up, take the $50 jobs “for the experience”, get out there and get Experienced. That implies something that I think becomes less and less true – that the Mother Machine actually prefers that you HAVE experience. Perhaps, when times weren’t so tough, a higher percentage of lenders/title entities DID prefer to keep everything kosher – but now, times ARE tough, across all the columns of our nation’s economy, and it changes the perspectives.
We all want the same thing – we SA’s, huge lending corporations, independent SS’s – we want to survive. We want to eat, pay our bills, meet stockholder’s expectations, hold attrition rates. It’s a relative thing, the wants and needs – but the means of satisfaction definitely vary.
Ahh … so now there exists a huge pool of guppie SA’s seriously lacking in experience, and this pool is continually being replenished. (To think that these $50 guppies will become $150 experienced SA’s in time, and that the problem is self-solving, is to ignore the math!) These new people are easily intimidated (please, I am GENERALIZING) and that is, to me, very apparent by reading the 5 boards that I read daily, in addition to my having audited over 10,000 closed pkgs), fairly clueless of the Big Picture and having but the most rudimentary knowledge of the laws they’re entrusted to satisfy. They come to these boards and ask questions and read opinions and they place a heavy weight on what they read here.
They’re told all day long – it’s acceptable and understandable to expect poverty-level wages while you’re gaining ‘experience’. They’re often chastised (as are the experience SA’s) for concerning themselves with anything beyond NOTARY law. Docs say he’s unmarried but he tells you he’s married? NOT YOUR BUSINESS, they’re told. (THAT one blew me away, so it comes to mind.) Credible witnesses used when they shouldn't be, RTC's improperly dated, I have to imagine (and of this, I am not very knowledgeable) that title agencies (i.e. their Underwriters!) LOVE Signing Services – because it adds one more step of removal from the actions at the table. Lenders don’t even want to think about you people out there – don’t ask, don’t tell. Send the docs to whoever is named on that Closing Protection Letter, and wipe your hands, your butt is covered.
It’s a pretty damn successful machine. It’s not like we’re reading about all the hundreds of SA’s being hauled into court every day, eh? Considering all the transactions that are done daily, and the HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of SA’s that are out there, acting in the capacity of the lender’s blindfolds and earplugs. And the beauty of this is that if/when the Stuff hits the proverbial Fan, the SA will (as I imagine it) be able to stand there and say, “all I did was notarize” (and sweat/pray they did THAT part right!).
The ‘experienced’ SA is now a double-edged sword. On the one hand, they’re not likely to pose much risk of messing things up PLUS they’re usually able to handle common problems – on the other hand, if that borrower presents anything from the Gray-Colored Category, your experienced SA is probably going to know what to do THERE, ALSO. Integrity plus some knowledge can pose a risk. On top of that, you’ve got the fee issue.
Well, this is the American Way, this is nothing specific to this industry, it’s our culture and our society, it is survival, it is capitalism and the great Passing of the Buck maneuvering.
On the flip side, there certainly are plenty of entities that hire our services and EXPECT our knowledge, experience AND integrity; and they realize those things are a commodity with value. We can all be winners; it just depends on what it was that you wanted to win.
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