You know the drill. You and your siblings pile in your parent’s 1982 Chevrolet station wagon for the long 10 hr. drive to the summer vacation hot spot. Lots of games took place and many were invented to pass the time: Hold your breath through the tunnel, Stratego (tough in a bumpy ride), card games among others and the grand-daddy….Stare Down!
Stare Down is when you and your brother or sister touch nose-to-nose, staring into each other’s eyes to see who blinks first and loses the game. In real estate, there are times when questions arise that create that same type of tension. I’ve written over at Rain City Guide about a variety of issues that deal with transactional problems. Some topics are based from experiences our office has had, other topics from discussing transactions with other colleagues in the escrow business. The hope is for those real estate professionals to look inward to challenge them on effective ways to create smooth transactions.
How to potentially save hundreds of dollars or more
This discussion is geared towards providing suggestions to the audience at Seattle Bubble which involves mostly consumers who are both homeowners and those who are looking to buy or refinance an existing mortgage.
When selling a home, buying a home or refinancing, you are intimately involved in the process that revolves around money. It is imperative that you check and double check your estimated fees with the Settlement Statement that is provided to you when you are signing your paperwork. The Settlement Statement is the form escrow provides that is a itemization of debits and credits in connection with your transaction.
During the frenzy, much was on the line. Borrowers had little time and leverage on their side when making decisions about a purchase or in questioning fees when at the signing table. Borrowers knew that they had to perform or lose out on the purchase of their home. Any deviation from that could have detrimental consequences both financially and personally. After all, who wants to start the buying process all over again? In that environment, next to zero. There are probably stories from readers here that could empathize with the pressure cooker of signing documents that are foreign and difficult to understand.
For example, last evening my wife signed a client in their comfort of their Windermere neighborhood home at 7:30 pm. Their loan package was just shy of 200 pages. One of the bigger packages we see. How in the world can someone in the scope of an hour or so, have an opportunity to digest and understand all that they are signing?
Recently, a client did reference their GFE (Good Faith Estimate) with the actual broker fees as itemized by the Settlement Statement. A large enough discrepancy was found that it triggered further scrutiny by the borrower. Escrow does not have borrower GFE’s. We are not in a role to advise a client whether to proceed or not or whether a loan is a good program depending upon the borrower’s financial circumstances.
Naturally, the discrepancy for this client created a situation in which the loan officer needed to explain why the overage. In the meantime, the borrower did what many do not know they have the capacity to do. They gave written instructions to escrow to not close the transaction until this issue was resolved.
Thus, the Stare Down game began in earnest. The Loan Officer blinked and the client saved a lot of money. A lot. It pays to shop and it pays to be patient and it pays to be informed.
S-Crow