Our Closing Experience
We closed recently and there were some things that bothered me during the process. I’m wondering if anyone experienced similar things and have any comments. Firstly, the actual closing event was like a zoo. People were talking over each other. It was super hard to hear whenever our lawyer was trying to summarize the gist…
We closed recently and there were some things that bothered me during the process. I’m wondering if anyone experienced similar things and have any comments.
Firstly, the actual closing event was like a zoo. People were talking over each other. It was super hard to hear whenever our lawyer was trying to summarize the gist of each document we were signing. What came through my mind was how could anyone concentrate on what they were doing. Is this the norm?
I had no idea the role of the title closer. I wish I had known about this and done a little more research. From what I can gather, the title closer is selected by our lawyer? At least our title closer seemed infinitely chummy with our lawyer. Ours kept getting my name wrong. They made a big deal about my husband’s name, penning in his middle initial as that got left off. Well, we have the official deed now and my name is incorrect. The last part of the first name is now listed as part of my lastname. I kept telling the title guy over and over that the hyphen meant the first two words were my firstname but I guess he still didn’t get it. How hard is this to correct and will there be implications later on when we go to sell? The mortgage is only in my husband’s name.
After all this mix up, we were told to write the closing guy $250…
The bank has the wrong escrow amounted listed for our real estate taxes. I found out later this number is given to them by the Title guy. Somehow the bank interpreted a quarterly tax amount to be an annual tax amount. That is a HUGE under-estimate. For some reason, our lawyer’s answer to this was to tell us to write a check for the upcoming Jan’10 payment to the Title guy and pay him an extra $30 to open this escrow account. I’ve since tried to alert the bank but no one seems overtly concerned. Telling me, the computer will self-adjust when it discovers this issue.
I HATED not getting the HUD statement until I asked for it from my lawyer. Even then, the document I got was half filled out and it was hard for me to check to be sure there weren’t any bogus amounts. He kept telling me I wouldn’t understand the amounts and that things were not finalized yet.
The bank’s lawyer. At the closing I asked why there was a charge of $150 for wire transfers that did not show up in the GFE the bank had give me. The bank’s lawyer told me they were “allowed†to charge up to that amount for that service. My lawyer looked at me and told me that a GFE was only an estimate. I was so frazzled that I didn’t think to call up the bank’s loan officer to double check. Afterwards, I did call the bank and they said, the bank’s lawyers weren’t suppose to charge that. When I asked about getting the $150 back, the bank said they couldn’t take any responsibility for that since the dealings were directly between us and the bank’s lawyer. I found this really odd since THEY picked the lawyer and THEY made us deal with him. Does this sound right?
Aside from my incorrect name on the title, I realize these might be little things but this house was a huge deal for us. I wish I had found better guidance about closing day… Its bothered me a bit since and I’m eager to hear your thoughts on this stuff..
Lesson learned:
Do not accept a recommendation for a lawyer to represent you from the real estate agent who represents the seller. Find someone through an impartial source you trust – the lawyer needs to represent you.
As for the other players – it goes without saying that they don’t have your interests at heart – they don’t represent you, they each represent other interests. That doesn’t mean they are out to get you, it just means that you have to realize that it is you who has to look out for yourself throughout the entire transaction.
A lawyer will use the same title company for all their business, each company has more than one title closer, some better than others. There is usually not a conspiracy between the title closer and the lawyer.
Don’t sweat the extra $150, it’s not worth your time or the stress – even though you are correct in your annoyance.
Fix your name though. It is important. That is why they were focusing on things like middle initials. It’s very sloppy for them to have screwed that up.
slopefarm’s first answer is spot on. Nevertheless, you bought a piece of something or other that’s presumably a half million bucks, a million, or maybe more. You’re worried about a few hundred? I’d be more worried if the roof will leak tomorrow. Look ahead, not back.
helppls,
The realtor did know what he was doing. He got you to hire a lawyer who got the deal to close without too much fuss at your end. Good for the realtor, a bit of a mess for you. That lawyer will get another referral from the realtor, no doubt.
Ask your lawyer what he recommends about the name issue. If he says don’t worry about it, ask him in an email if that is his professional opinion, that you, under your real name, have marketable title with the deed under the incorrect name. If the deed is correct and only some other docs aren’t, you are probably ok, but don’t rely on me for that.
I think the incorrect name is not that big a deal. I see what looks like screwed up versions of names all the time on acris or propertyshark. I think recording a deed with name changes is something an attorney can typically do for a couple hundred bucks (court filing fee + a bit of their time). In your case I’d ask your attorney to do it without charging you for it, because it sounds like he didn’t take care of business at closing. If he won’t, then out him with the negative feedback here on brownstoner.
Try to call the registrars office and see if you can straighten out the correct spelling of the name and also dept of finance for r.e. bills.
Oy Gevalt! What a mess. You had to pay for it which makes it worse
Our lawyer informed us to make sure we politely tell our loan officer to send the ‘figures’ ASAP (about 3-4 days before closing). He explained to us what this meant (ALL the checks that was going to be cut is going to be based on this number) and to make closing don’t drag out. He was right.
Well our title guy did not want to reschedule closing- we did not either. At this point, the Sponsors did not have a choice. They fix the problem or we had an out to our contract (they basically wanted to hold a higher amount in escrow for the tax).
And we did not pay any ‘tips’ to our title guy. He had a fee and that was it. And we knew that number ahead of time.
Crimsonson, How do I find out when the bank sent the calculation?
Our bank was HSBC, and like our lawyer, up until the closing, it had been an awesome experience. Great loan officier, quick turnaround on everything…
Sounds like our title closer SUCKED more than I though. Why didn’t he make the bank fix the HUD figures when it was discovered they were using the wrong escrow amounts for the real estate taxes?
helppls, sounds like you had a crummy lawyer. My closing was easy breathy. Took about 45 minutes. My lawyer was not very responsive with answering my sometimes silly questions during the whole buying process but when it came time for closing, he really stepped up. He called me the day before and explained ALL of the checks that I will be writing and broke out everything for me and his assistant explained to me what every single penny was for. No surprises at closing at all and I didn’t “tip” anyone. Also seemed like my lawyer is the one that was the big dog at the closing. The sponsor’s lawyer as well as the bank’s lawyer kept fairly quiet while my lawyer delegated paperwork and explained every piece of paper to me that I was signing. At some point he threw some papers back at the bank’s attorney and told him to literally shove them up **** and that he wouldn’t let me sign any of it and if they peeped we would get up and walk away. I kept quiet and after we walked out of the office, he explained to me that they tried to tag on some fees and add on hefty late payment penalties if I didn’t pay my charges on time.
Sorry to hear your experience.