My last signing for 2025 was a sellers in my city. Simple 24 page packet, sign scan, drop, no problem. Or it should have been. I arrived at the house and the people were loading up their car to move out. The lady said I am embarrassed to take you in the house. I played it off and said it will be ok. After about 10 minutes and a few pages into the signing I realized it wouldn’t be ok. They had no table to sign at so we used a sofa table and made it work. The not ok part came when I noticed bugs on the table we were signing at and I would shew them away. Then they started dropping from the walls or ceiling and a few even exploded on the papers we were signing. I powered through the signing and got out of there as soon as I could. I got home scanned and uploaded thinking this nightmare was over, but it wasn’t. I pushed back from my desk and noticed one of those bugs crawling out of the cuff on my pants, then another one, and another one. I killed them, and immediately took all my clothes and threw them into the wash on hot water and washed them. Then I took one of the dead soldiers and did a google scan, and it turned out they were likely BED BUGS! So I then had to empty my brief case into two air tight containers that I had near my washer to quarantine everything for at least three days in case there were any bugs or eggs on my stuff. I have had to treat the entire house and can’t work until I can get my stuff out of quarantine and clean it. I will end up throwing away most of it with the exception of my stamp just to be on the safe side. Needless to say, this signing cost me money. The worst part is after the fact, I realized through some of the conversation that I heard between her and her husband that they probably knew about it. I heard her telling him that when we were done they would go get him new clothes, and throw his away, before going to there hotel. Not only is it disgusting, but frustrating when people willfully put us in a position to compromise our health and safety or worse, bring things like this home to our families. Thankfully I haven’t seen any of them in our home, so my prayer is that they were contained to my clothes and my bag. I hope 2026 starts out better than 2025 ended.
If nothing else, I can promise you , I will turn around and walk out if I encounter another place that looked like this one. In retrospect I should have, but at first it just looked dirty and messy, so I tried to be professional and finish the job.
Wow, that sounds like an incredibly unsettling experience, and I sincerely hope things are looking up for you now and that you’re recovering well from this ordeal. Your story has very clearly illustrated some of the less desirable aspects of working in this profession, serving as a stark reminder that we are often stepping into the unknown when we accept a signing appointment. The unpredictability of the environments and situations we might encounter can truly be concerning, and it’s something we all need to be aware of and prepared for, even if we don’t encounter anything as extreme as what you’ve described.
Oh Florida, how did I guess? I litterally moved away from that state to the PNW (Oregon) and bugs was one of the many reasons. I was chatting with a SS agent and they told me a notary showed up to a signing and a roach crawled out of her notary bag and the signers were mortified and had recently had a baby so were hyper aggravated. The SS agent said the worst stories always come out of FL.
My worst job, I pulled up to the house and was looking at my phone and looking at the house in disbelief. My 10 year old was with me as it was a quick signing and he seen the house and said “This can’t be it, this should have been demolished years ago!” Sure enough the signer comes out and waves me in to park. It was just as terrible inside as it was outside. I had to hold my bag and have him sign on a clipboard. It was the type of small rural town where if they see outsiders pull in, they stay outside and wait for the outsider to leave. The signer was polite but yeah, we get put into some crazy situations. I’m thankful I worked at a maximum security prison in FL for 6.5 years so I have some extra training when it comes to dealing with crazies.
OH HELL NNOOO!! That there is a health risk! I would have stopped the signing, immediately called the Title Company or Signing Service and told them that I would NOT risked my health. What if you would have brought that home to your children, spouse, or pets? Many years ago, I moved into an apartment and was NOT told that it had bedbugs! It affected me, my kids, ex-fiance, and my cat. It was very costly to remove those little critters. The signers should had told you in advanced. At least you would have came with a hazmat suit.
If there was no place to sign, you should have suggested the garage, a restaurant, something where a table could be. If the weather permitted, I use the back of my truck, I always carry a clipboard too. If they had bugs, I would have left immediately and called the signing agency and the title company. If the house was being sold, they would have had to have had an inspection, how did it pass? I would contact the signing agency, or whomever hired you and inform them of the situation and be compensated for the additional cleaning you had. You also now need to have your own home checked as you may think you have them taken care of, but if they were bed bugs, they get into everything and they are now in your vehicle as well (sorry for that bad report card). I worked in the medical field for years and I am very careful of smells and visuals when I go into a house. If they hoard, I leave, if it wreaks I leave. Our health is just as important as theirs, and we have other people to deal with as well.
If it was only 24 pages, it definitely could have been signed outside.
Always remember when scheduling your signings to ask if there will be a table available, if not, they if there is a local place to meet at as there will need to be a table, coffee tables will not work, at least not for me.
Always be aware of your surroundings, remember, you have no idea whom you are working with and what their temperament they have. Be diligent and polite all at the same time. I always try and be where I can have the door within easy reach.
OMG! I wanted to post maybe make you feel better having gone through bed bugs a few years ago, and the best cure is throwing things out if you were in contact.
Having said that, what you described is not typical of bed bugs at all. They are very small about the size of a woman’s pinkie nail and only come out in the dark, hence called bed bugs. If empty, they are flat and dark brown black, and full of blood are on the red side, about the same as a tick. Tell tale signs are checking the crevices of pillow cases for any black dots, specks of dried blood. They love pillow corners, the part of furniture that connects or staples together, mattress seams, baseboards on walls.They wait until you are nice and toasty warm sleeping, completely dark, and then come out and feed on you. No pain, but will have tell tale signs usually on your shoulders and behind on thighs, whatever touch the mattress. They itch, welt up like a mosquito bite and go in a line of 3 or 4 bites about an inch apart. It usually takes awhile before you know you have them because they are sneaky devils. Heat kills them, and very hard to get rid of and see during the day. Usually will only see their debris.
What I think you had at that closing were German Cockroaches. Those devils will go out anytime of day or night, love paper, climb walls and are not shy, and do drop from above and crawl up from below.
Anyway, whatever you had isn’t worth any amount of money bringing home critters, and the lesson learned from me from your experience is if they say they want to stay outside, I’m going to listen.
I took everything I had on and washed it in hot water twice, then dried it on high heat, including my briefcase. All my supplies I have placed in sealed containers, inside a trash bag, inside another container. They have set for 5 days. Everything that can be thrown away will be once I open the containers outside this week. I have vaccumed and treated my car, and every part of my house. I check daily to see if there are any signs of them anywhere. So far I haven’t seen any signs. I’m hoping since I saw them on my pants leg shortly after getting home and immediately washed and sealed up my all stuff we have contained them. I did treat the house with a liquid chemical treatment to hopefully kill anything that might have escaped. I will keep checking around the house in the weeks and months to come.
Concur 100% 