Rhonda, too funny! That is exactly where the buyer gets confused. Lender says “docs are in”, buyer tells escrow company they are lying when they say they don’t have them.

Doc’s are IN = at escrow, not “in” the lenders hands.

Thanks for explaining why this is such a common misunderstanding of terms.

Our loan docs are sent via secure electronic transfer… a few years ago, we would “send” paper documents via courier. Now it’s all push button to the escrow company. We need to confirm they’ve received them and they need to print them for the client.

I do advise clients when we have “delivered” docs to the escrow company.

Another issue is when LO’s tell the parties involved that escrow has docs when they don’t. I’m sure Tim and Lynlee could share plenty of stories about that. The buyer or agent calls escrow wondering what’s taking them so long when they’ve yet to receive the docs…yet the LO will make it look like they’ve been sitting on them for days (or at least hours).

I will note here that the one hour timeframe between comments one and two is likely the shortest time it can take from “docs IN” to “numbers ready for review”. At the end of the month, that timeframe may not be as reasonable. Most often Docs Ordered to Docs In takes a couple of days and up to 3 business days, but last week I had a same day turn around from docs ordered to docs in. It was clearly the fastest turn around from docs ordered I had ever seen.

I think it was because it was a “House Key” program loan, and the wait at the end was only for the MCC certificate. Also it was one of those weeks when the County was going to be closed on Friday, making everyone want to sign and close by Thursday. Luckily it wasn’t the end of the month. Oh, and it was also the week before Easter and people who had off from work that week didn’t want to hear they would be closing on Monday vs. Thursday.

It reminded me of the day I had my daughter Jackie and the lobby was filled with Mom’s wanting to be induced. It was March 31st and apparently no one wanted an April Fool’s baby

I once wrote a post about an escrow being like the three tri-mesters of a pregnancy. Phase one is so intense and disruptive it can make you nauseous. Phase two is pretty calm and sometimes so calm you wonder if everything is OK. Phase three at the end can be very easy or very hard….no way to tell on day one of Phase one, which way the “end labor” is going to go.

The event of the lender ordering docs or even sending docs does not necessarily mean escrow will receive the documents in two minutes, or two hours or even two days.

It’s frustrating to be in escrow sometimes and having a disgruntled buyer, seller or agent who thinks escrow has the documents and, somehow, just doesn’t want to acknowledge it.

People sometimes ask me how I have so much time to blog. First of all, it doesn’t take me very long to write a blog post. Secondly, writing a blog post sometimes keeps me from biting my nails or eating something fattening while waiting for docs to come in