Please beware if you are buying a house and this individual shows up as the 'signing agent' at closing.
We bought a home back in April, and had the most awful experience with this person. To cut a long story short: He would not let us review our closing documents, stating that they were 'his' instructions on 'how to close escrow', and that he didn't have the time to sit there while we read through our closing documents. When we insisted that we won't sign anything without reviewing it first - even if they were merely HIS instructions - he became very rude / unprofessional, insulting, and basically told us that if we insisted on reading the closing documents, then he would not let us close escrow!
As we were first time home buyers, we had no idea what our rights were, although we found his behavior disgraceful. We demanded to speak to the closing agent - Francine Linde - at Chicago Title but he told that she wasn't available. He also told us that NO ONE ever reviews closing documents, and that since he was booked back-to-back he could not come back another day to close our home! We did not realize at the time that he was simply a closing notary and that we could have always had another notary witness our signatures at another time. He acted as if he was the guy that had the "power" - as a representative of the lender - to decide if we would get the house or not!
Our mistake was that we did not learn more about the closing process and did not realize that he was ONLY A NOTARY. He had NO right to tell us that we couldn't get the house and no right to tell us that we couldn't review the documents prior to signing. It was illegal for him to do so, not to mention, unethical.
We realized, after the fact, that thanks to his bullying, we did not catch a $4000 difference between the good faith estimate and the actual closing costs! He seems to have been hand-in-glove in aiding the lender in this rip off. I have since complained about him to the title company (Chicago Title, located in downtown San Jose), the Secretary of State's office, and local escrow organizations. The SoS told us that since he did not actually do anything illegal but did behave unethically, they could not take action against him, although they would act if they received more complaints about him, involving active wrong-doing. Chicago Title claims that they have 'warned' him and that they would no longer use his services if more complaints are raised, but I am writing here to alert all FIRST TIME HOME BUYERS to KNOW YOUR RIGHTS, be aware of how the closing process works, to be assertive and stand up for yourself, demand copies of your closing documents AT LEAST two days before closing so you can review them, pay ESPECIAL attention to the Good Faith Estimate and actual summary of closing costs (to ensure that you aren't being given a low ball GFE but slapped with a bunch of unnecessary charges that were never mentioned in the GFE at closing), to insist that your loan agent and your realtor is there with you at closing and go through each document with you, to not be afraid to ask questions and / or object is anything does not make sense, and, if you are closing in the Bay Area, to be VERY careful should P. C Doren show up as a signing agent. He may come across initial as being nice and will make small talk but he will tell you that he has clients lined-up back-to-back and that he has no time to wait while you review your clsoing documents. If he tries to act like he is a representative of the lender and can make sure that you don't buy the house, laugh him off and demand another signing notary. You don't need to PAY this guy for his services. What hurts me the most is that we basically PAID him to humiliate / intimidate / harass / RIP US OFF.
0 comments