Finished the week with 8 signings. 5 signings already for next week, 4 on Tuesday. After the first signing yesterday morning, drove to UPS, about to send the docs off, when a thought came, “I’ll just look through the docs to make sure everything is signed.” Lo and behold! Client didn’t sign the Settlement Statement!! Couldn’t believe it–I distinctly remembered telling him to "sign the Settlement Statement–“and no date.” Scooped up the docs, drove back to the signing address. “Oh, yeah”, customer said casually, “I remember you telling me to sign the Settlement Statement. Sorry about that.” Brain fried, but it was my fault for not catching the error. Thanks be I did catch it–I would have been sent to 45 day Amrock lockup for sure. A lesson relearned–I absolutely need to go through the docs at the table again after the signing is finished to make double sure the package is perfect. As I told Julie last night, “I’ve got to tell the customers up front that I’ll go through the docs again when we’re finished to make sure we haven’t missed anything.” Another “chore”, and time is money. Not doing that little extra chore is exactly what has cost me defects. I have found (too often) that I can’t trust the customers are signing a document even when I tell them where to sign, even when I think they are signing as I instructed. Sometimes they just don’t hear me even when I say it, even when I point to the signature line. Sometimes they look at the signature line with their name printed directly below it, and they’ll ask, “Do you want me to print my name?” Or, “Do you want me to sign on the line above my name, or below where my name is printed??”
Glad you caught it before it was sent out. I always tell the signer…“Alright let me just check all the documents to make sure that I didn’t miss anything.”
ALWAYS double check documents at the table before you leave.
It doesn’t matter how many times you tell signers to do certain things (sign here, sign your name the way it is printed, date only if it says date, etc) for some reason many of them still have brain farts and don’t follow instructions. It’s extremely irritating that they can’t follow the simplest of instructions but is what it is, I don’t even let it upset me any more. Just thoroughly check the documents before you leave, a few extra minutes at the table will save you time and miles having to get a document resigned after the fact.
**What I do, is make a BR copy like I would do for any other loan than quicken. Amrock says not to, but with errors being made at the table & then you have to make a quicken call that sometimes can tie you up for 30 or more minutes or the BR trying to print that paper, it becomes a nitemare waiting for an answer. I also remove the closing instructions with the copy before hand the BR the copy. This I find much easier cause I can just switch out the bad for good copy. **
You just remembered to check the docs after left the signing, which is telling me you didn’t do this with the 8 signing during the week. Always recheck the docs at the signing table, look for missed initials, missing or wrong dates and missed signatures. I do well over 40+ signings a week, You got to be perfect all the time, and never blame the customer, your in control of that signing, not the customer. And always look at the them and how there signing and dating as they are doing it, to find mistakes as they happen.
I almost always check the docs again before leaving the table just to make sure nothing was missed. Didn’t on this occasion because the client was in a hurry and had to get back to work. Thus, a client signature was missed on one of the docs. Yes, agree, always check the docs again after the signing, even if the client let’s you know up front that they are in hurry.
