Question about a document I've never seen before

Hi all- I’m fairly new to loan signing. I’ve been a Notary for about 1 1/2 years and was certified as a signing agent by a Non NNA notary school about 15 months ago. I just did my NNA certification last week…but I’m not a brand newbie. So here are my question…

I’m in California. I have a signing from a lender I’ve never had before and there is a document I’ve never seen…it’s called an “expedited signing agreement” and it has a place for the borrowers to sign and then under that it says “Authorized Representative” and a place for a signature. Then it has a notary section with wording I’n not familiar with but with what best looks like it’s meant to be a power of attorney. I’m not comfortable notarizing with a blank line so is it OK for me to put N/A in that section since both signers will be at the signing? Have any of you seen this document before?

Second Question: What do you all do when the borrowers don’t return your call for confirmation. I’ve called, texted and emailed and still no response for confirmation.

And now for the final question…I’ve always done one line in my journal per signature/per document so I could easily have 10 or 12 lines for a refi. Another notary I know says this is crazy and she does one line for the acknowledgements and one line for the Jurats…so usually 4 lines in the journal. I’m almost positive that it’s a CA requirement to be one line per document per signature but she thinks that doesn’t apply to loan signings. Thoughts/Opinions?

Thank you all for your help…I love the forums here, I get so much information from all your experience. Thank you!

[quote=“joyryun, post:1, topic:11206”]
I’m in California. I have a signing from a lender I’ve never had before and there is a document I’ve never seen…it’s called an “expedited signing agreement” and it has a place for the borrowers to sign and then under that it says “Authorized Representative” and a place for a signature. Then it has a notary section with wording I’n not familiar with but with what best looks like it’s meant to be a power of attorney. I’m not comfortable notarizing with a blank line so is it OK for me to put N/A in that section since both signers will be at the signing? Have any of you seen this document before? [/quote]

I can’t comment on this - I’d have to see the document to know exactly what you’re referring to. Sounds line the lower part is for the authorized agent to sign; I would probably attach a California-compliant cert for the borrowers’ section and ignore the notary section at the bottom. All else fails, check with title as to who signs where.

[quote=“joyryun, post:1, topic:11206”]
Second Question: What do you all do when the borrowers don’t return your call for confirmation. I’ve called, texted and emailed and still no response for confirmation. [/quote]

I start hitting up title and the loan officer incessantly to get me a good number and put me in touch with the signers; if no response at all (and this is just me mind you) then I turn the assignment back - I never went to an assignment I could not firmly confirm with signers first. Have heard far too many horror stories about notaries “just going” and (a) borrowers had already canceled and are livid; (b) all borrowers are not present or they do not have current, valid photo ID; or (c) they’re away in another state and had no intention of being home on said date at said time.

My understanding is California law is clear on journal requirements - you must do one line per signature per document - you can’t cluster them all together - AND your signers must sign each line of your journal no diagonal lines with one signature. And IMO it absolutely does apply to loan signings as the only thing is the journal is a records of a notarized document - so it very much applies.

Hope this helps.

1 Like

I do 1 line per transaction. If there’s 2 signers, I have the main borrower sign the signature line on top and the second signer on the bottom. I place the ID info of the main borrower and the line for the witness for the second borrower’s ID. As long as there’s nothing on the witness line, I try to utilize it for other information of the borrowers. I hope this helps. Love this Forum! I learn a lot from others, and happy to share mine. Thanks to all members that doesn’t mind sharing. Best to all!!!