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..
When did YOUR bank completed the calculations and sent the info to your lawyer? This is usually done 24 hours before closing. It does happen in the same day as closing and it usually turns to a shit storm, just like you described.
If your bank sent the info 24 hours (sometimes more) ahead of time, closing would be much smoother (but does not excuse rude behavior).
Our bank was late with their figures (same day) and the Sponsor provided the wrong info regarding tax. Our title closer refused to sign on to anything (which basically allowed us to stall the closing) until they fixed it. We (lawyer, title and my wife) sat around for 15 minutes until they resolved it.
Who was your bank BTW?
DIBS is right, $250 is too much for title closer in most circumstances. Ours was the exception. 5 hour closing, mammoth escrow for violations, and seller’s lawyer was monkeying around (and I don’t mean acting silly and making faces). She earned every penny.
Slopefarm, You hit it right on the head. I figured the realtor knew what he was talking about when we asked him for real estate lawyer recs. He said he had met this attorney at another closing and had been impressed. So we went with him. Up until the closing, he seemed like he was on the ball and very professional…
Regarding having our laywer get our $150 back from the bank’s lawyer, I doubt it will happen. He’s told us to our face on several occassions before, it would not be worth his time/our money to go after small amounts like this…
I guess there is no consumer protection on these charges. Anyone can charge anything they want. Heck, I should try and get in this industry! Looking back, the title closer did not have our best interests in mind and I object to having to us him simply because I guess our lawyer has always used him/the same title company. Unfortunately for me, I cannot screen the title closers on my own closing.
Crimsonson, I had to call at 3:30pm the day before closing because I told him the BANKS were closing and I couldn’t get a bank check in time. He did some calculations (without talking me through any of it) and just told me to get a bank check in the morning of for a certain amount. At this point I asked him for the HUD and got an incomplete from. Who handles the HUD, who dropped the ball on this? I still don’t know. Is this from the bank or ????
You don’t have to use the lawyer’s title guy. You can use your own. They are chummy with it each other because it is a partnership – the lawyers provide clients.
Your lawyer sounds horrible.
In our closing the three lawyers (our bank, our lawyer, the Sponor’s lawyer) and the title guy where all respectful and spoke in low voice.
We got our HUD statement early in the closing and our lawyer explained it. There where no surprises (except for the interest of the escrow from our down payement) in cost because we knew about the title guy ahead of time.
During and post boom it seems closing is treated like a sweat shop process. It is easy money for everyone – except you.
It sounds like your lawyer did not prepare you or the file well enough. Title closer is from the title insurance company. Your lawyer should have prepared you in advance that a “tip” is more or less mandatory. Your lawyer should also have interceded on the name issue — one of the docs you sign says that you represent what you name is and here are the other acceptable variations. I assume the weirdly incorrect hyphenation wasn’t one of the acceptable variations. Ask the lawyer how to fix this.
If too much cross-talk was impairing your understanding of what was going on, your lawyer should have asked everyone to pipe down. To everyone else in the room, this is routine business and they are just waiting for you to sign a million documents, most of which you’ve never seen before.
Your lawyer should have gone over a closing statement in advance and known what charges to expect so you could bring whatever you needed. Ask the lawyer to get the $150 back for you.
By any chance, did you use a lawyer recommended by the realtor?
Sounds like I have a lot to learn about the purchasing process in NY. I don’t even know what any of the solicitors that I’ve used for purchases in the UK look like!
We had a similar zoo like closing. The Bank Lawyer was 12 years old and her or the bank had mis calculated the taxes as well and tried to reschedule the closing. The developers lawyer was a 112 year old Jewish guy who started yelling (really loud) and threating to take everyone to court. Our lawyer (old Irish guy) started laughing and the bank lawyer looked like she was going to cry. Luckily we had all the checks for the correct amount(s) despite the banks mistake on the paper work.
In the end all worked out (so far).
DIBS, Its was SOO fustrating to be the one writing checks, handing over our hard-earned money – but having ZERO control in the amounts. Really fustrating.
Not sure about all the things you mention. We had several unexpected charges for closing costs that were not legitimate (such as fees for extending a rate we didn’t need to extend) amounting to $2,000. We were toldwe would receive a reimbursment check inthe mail. We haven’t received anything.