This place, while “very rough”, was not the worst. We’ve been to some very remote and isolated areas. While escrow firms go way out of their way to assist agents and loan officers in closing their transcations for our mutual clients, you can see why courtesy signings outside of normal business hours or far distances are not free.
We’ve signed clients from one extreme to the other: in jail at 9pm at night a couple days before Christmas when no one should be working, to the Columbia Basin dust bowl of Ephrata in eastern Washington; the Columbia Tower Club in downtown Seattle to everyone’s second office, Starbucks!
In fact, with all the closings we’ve had, I have NEVER ONCE been to your office! LOL
A bar, Microsoft Campus, and once you did one of my clients at home the day she came home from the hospital with her baby!
Tim and Lynlee are definitely MOBILE! And Excellent as well. Lynlee is the best, bar none and no close second. Still I can’t do all of my closings there, but I do as often as I can. And when I can’t, the comparison is always disappointing.
You’ve definitely got me spoiled.
Hi Lynlee,
Question: How do you handle privacy issues when you’re outside of the office?
How do prepare for not having access to a photocopy machine to make a copy of their identification?
What happens if you need to access your escrow file? For example, a consumer may challeng a fee on the HUD I and ask to see an invoice for a third party fee.
Hi Jillayne,
When we schedule the appointment we ask the borrowers to bring a photo copy of their ID with them. We also ask to see their original ID when we are with them.
The escrow file is always with me at the appointment in case I need to reference something in the file.
Clients are not worried about privacy issues when meeting in a public place. Sometimes I say, “this is your loan amount, this is your rate, payment ,etc.,” while pointing to the figures, instead of actually saying the numbers out loud.
I took some out of town clients to eat at the Alger Bar and Grill (formerly the Alger Tavern) and we happened to coincide with the Oyster Run which attracts hundreds of bikers. The food there is fair to good, they are locally famous for their chicken, but the ambiance that day was priceless.
How do you prepare yourself if you do a mobile signing with a single man at his house. My fiance is a realtor and i go with her everytime she shows a house. My mobile signings have gone great, the borrowers really like signing in their own enviroment. I also agree that it is ok to sign in a pulic place.
Michael,
How do I prepare?
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and I’m a card carrying member of the NRA (just teasing.)
Lynlee, that’s a visual! 🙂
Done mine at the “second office” . As an new LO I can see the benefit of flexibility and a service motive.
Lynlee:
Your ID and privacy procedures are just like ours except our title/escrow file never leaves the office. Our closers take copies of all invoices and payoffs with the copy packages.
We serve 34 counties and so only a very small percentage of our transactions take place in our office.
Whether it’s the nursing home or maternity ward or just the local coffee shop, consumers do appreciate the convenience.
Today we’re having our biggest snow storm of the year and it reminds me of a closing I had a few years back when the governor declared an emergency and no one was permitted to drive because of the snow. We cancelled a closing only to find that the buyer was on route from Virginia and we could not reach them. They would arrive with their family and no place to stay, the selling agent asked if I wouldn’t mind coming anyway so I agreed to drive over the mountain and close. It was eery because in Ligonier and on the mountain, I was alone. Once I got to Johnstown, EVERYBODY WAS ON THE ROAD. [It was a bizarre comparison of community standards when faced with government mandates.]
Realtors and mobile closers have loads of fun stories because we deal in life, don’t we? 😉