Colorado Springs Notary - Leon Austin

Notary signing agents are instructed to always be polite and courteous, and to never address the borrowers by their first name, even though they may insist upon it. So throughout the signing it is always 'Mr. Borrower' or 'Mrs. Borrower'.

But it's not always 'Mr.' or 'Mrs.'

There have been times when the borrower is a doctor. And I have done closings for pastors of a church.  In situations like this I want to address the borrower by their appropriate title -- 'Dr. Borrower', 'Reverend Borrower', or whatever is appropriate.

Usually the location of the closing will give a clue. I once did a closing for a dentist at his office.  I addressed him as 'Dr. ...' But the location is not always an indicator.  I did a closing at a church recently. The borrower worked there, but he was not the pastor.

Sometimes the 1003 Loan Application can be used to let the signing agent know what the borrower's occupation is.  But the occupation won't tell you what degrees the borrower has. If he's an engineer, he could be a Ph.D., in which case he could be called 'Dr.', even though he is not an M.D.

Borrowers might be very sensitive about how they are addressed. They may even be insulted if you address them as Mr. or Mrs., if they prefer to be called 'Dr.' or 'Reverend'.  So the best thing to do, when in doubt, is to of course ... ask.

Good luck.

P.S. Of course, there are certain people whom you always address as 'Mr.'

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One of the documents that a borrower may be required to sign at closing is a Correction Agreement - Limited Power of Attorney. The heading of it will look something like this:

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It's the kind of document that can evoke suspicion in any borrower. What kind of 'Power of Attorney' is this actually, and what is the lender going to do with this 'power'?  And what kind of 'correction' will the lender be empowered to make?

What I try to do is put the borrower at ease by explaining what this agreement is used for. First of all, it is a 'limited' power of attorney, which means that there are limits to what powers it grants the lender. The document will read something like this:

The undersigned purchaser(s) (Borrower(s)), for and in consideration of XYZ Mortgage Company, agree that if requested by Lender or its agents, successors, or assigns, I/we will fully cooperate and adjust all TYPOGRAPHICAL OR CLERICAL ERRORS discovered in any or all of the closing documents presented at time of closing.

The undersigned hereby appoints as my/our attorney-in-fact to act for me/us in my/our name to correct any such errors, place my/our initials on documents where changes are made, and/or sign my/our name(s) to any document or form, and to perform any and every act required or necessary to effectuate the adjustment or correction of such errors. In the event this procedure is utilized, the borrower(s) shall be notified and receive a corrected copy of the changed document from the Lender: This power of attorney shall take effect upon the date of this agreement.

The power of attorney created herein is a durable power of attorney and shall not be affected by my subsequent disability or incapacity.
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I am a notary signing agent. I am not an attorney, and may not give legal advice. But one thing that I assure the borrower is that, this is an agreement to correct 'clerical errors'. Also, this is a 'correction' agreement -- not a 'modification' agreement.  This means that the lender will not use this agreement to change the interest rate, or any other terms of their loan. A fixed rate will remain a fixed rate. If there is no prepayment penalty, it will stay that way. Etc.

Yes, but how long will the lender have this power?

That's a good question, and one that the borrower should ask their loan officer. But typically a power of attorney ends when the granter dies.  That could be a long time. But this type of power of attorney usually terminates in one year:

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This is basically what the Correction Agreement - Limited Power of Attorney is about. It is used primarily as a convenience to the borrower.

And a convenience to the borrower is also the primary purpose of the notary signing agent.

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Occasionally I will get a request to do something that I simply am not authorized to do as a Colorado notary public. Today was such a day, and a Medallion Signature Guarantee is such an act.

The man told me that it was for transferring stock between himself and his father. It reminded me of the time when I had a stock certificate that I wanted to transfer to my brokerage account so that the shares would be in "street name". I took the stock certificate to Wells Fargo, where I have an account, and one of the bank employees affixed a Medallion Signature Guarantee stamp.  But this man told me that he didn't have a bank account. So he called me, hoping that I could help him.

Unfortunately I can't. Even if I owned a Medallion Signature Guarantee stamp, I am not authorized to guarantee a signature. Here is a sample of a Medallion Signature Guarantee imprint:

It must be done by a financial institution (i.e. bank, credit union, or broker dealer) that participates in one of the Medallion signature guarantee programs.

For more information, read: Signature Guarantees: Preventing the Unauthorized Transfer of Securities at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission website.

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I was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. I've lived in Colorado Springs for 18 years, and this is now home to me. But I still miss a lot of things about Detroit.

Although it was a big city, all of the streets had different names. There was only one 'Buena Vista'. One 'Virginia Park'. One 'Tyler'. Etc.

All of that changed when I moved to Colorado. It seems that the people who named the streets wanted to get as much mileage out of a street name as they could. So you find a lot of streets with the same name, just a different suffix. By using these suffixes, they can use the same name for 6 or more totally different streets.

When I get a closing assignment, it's important that the company gives me the complete name of the street. Here are just a couple of examples of streets in Pueblo:

You have 'Paramount Way' and 'Paramount Drive'.

And there is 'Ivanhoe Drive' and 'Ivanhoe Court'.

Of course, you can have many more streets with the same name by adding words like 'Place', 'Circle', 'Ridge', 'Parkway', 'Lane', ... just to name a few.

I don't miss the harsh winters in Michigan, with bone-chilling temperatures, chest-high snow drifts, and roads that could be used for playing ice hockey.

But I sure do miss the simple street names.

Occasionally I will encounter a borrower who wants to know how much I make for each closing that I do. Some are direct about it, and will ask me how much I'm being paid to do their closing. And there are those who aren't so direct, yet they are still curious.  They might pretend that they are interested in being a notary signing agent and ask how much they can make.

All they have to do is look at line 1106 of their Settlement Statement and it will tell them how much they are being charged for my services.

But how much they are being charged, and how much I am being paid are 2 different things.

Most of the the closings I do are for title companies. They will ask me what my fee is, and that amount will be listed on the Settlement Statement. My name will be on there too. So there is no doubt in the borrower's mind how much I'm being paid.

But line 1106 can be very misleading because I don't always work directly with title companies. I also work with signing services. The amount the borrower is being charged for notary services will be reflected on line 1106, but that is the amount that is being paid to the signing service -- the middle man.

I get paid by the signing service from that amount. It's important that borrowers understand this.

If I always made the kind of money per closing that is reflected in line 1106, I would not be driving a VW Jetta.

The amount of paper that I had been accumulating over the years has become so overwhelming that I have decided to go paperless, wherever possible. If you've been reading my past blog entries, you know that I am finding more and more uses for my Palm T|X.

I spent the better part of today scanning documents, and throwing out documents that I don't need. I also went online to all of my accounts to sign up for online statements. The mail carrier will be delivering less mail to my address.

I never cared much for reading statements on a computer screen. But if it means being able to reduce the amount of paper and clutter in my life, I'll be able to adjust to it.

There is one area where I will never be able to eliminate paper. As a notary signing agent, my job involves printing loan documents. I have to buy paper by the cases. But if loan closings ever go completely paperless, I will be one of the first to embrace the technology.

My office looks a lot different than it did before I started eliminating the paper.

I still have a long way to go before I'm working like Bill Gates.

But I'm on the road to going paperless. It feels good.

And my credit card company reminded me of another reason for eliminating paper. After I completed the process for getting all of my statements online from now on, I got this message:

It's good for the environment.

I wanted to back up some files on my external hard drive yesterday. When I checked to see if I had any space left on the disc I was using, I was puzzled when I saw that I had close to 4 gigabytes remaining.

How could this be?

The CD-R discs that I use only have a capacity of 700 megabytes. Then I noticed that I have some DVD+R discs right beside them. I accidentally put a DVD disc in the drive instead of a CD-R disc.

But will it work?

To my surprise, the DVD+R discs are just as capable of storing computer files. I did a search on Google and read an article that explained how this is possible.

So instead of having to use several CD-R discs, I only need one DVD+R disc.

As you can see, I have over 700 megabytes stored on this disc. All of that would not fit on a CD-R disc. But using a DVD+R disc, I still have over 3 gigabytes of free space.

While I was at it, I backed up a lot of files on my 60 gigabyte external hard drive -- using just a few DVD discs.

What I thought was an accident, turned out to be a great discovery.

They look the same, but there is a huge difference.

Good luck.

With the wind chill factor it felt like 6 degrees outside. This is what it looked like in Pueblo West, Colorado on Saturday morning. Frigid cold and icy roads:

The only top that he wore to his Reverse Mortgage closing was a t-shirt. No coat. No hat. No gloves.

Is he crazy?

No. He was actually quite warm. Why shouldn't he be? He was signing his loan documents in the warmth and comfort of his own home.

Senior citizens who are taking out a Reverse Mortgage should not have to leave their homes in winter, and endure sub-freezing temperatures to do the signing of their loan documents. They should not have to risk injury by falling on slippery pavement.  They should not have to drive on icy roads. There should be a way for them to do the signing of their loan documents in the warmth, comfort, and privacy of their own home.

There is.

As a notary signing agent, I have been providing this service to reverse mortgage borrowers for a long time. It's my pleasure. And it's a pleasure for the borrowers. He could hardly believe that someone drove 40 miles from Colorado Springs to his home in Pueblo.

That is the way it should be.

Reverse mortgage clients should be allowed to stay in their homes to do the signing of their loan documents. It's one of the best services that we can provide them.

And one of the most pleasurable and memorable experiences too. This borrower will never forget the day the temperature was sub-freezing, and was comfortable wearing a t-shirt to the closing.

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There is a lot more to printing loan documents than simply turning on the printer and clicking on a few tabs on the computer screen.

WYSIAWYG (What you see isn't always what you get)

I noticed that the margins on the HUD Settlement Statement were cut off:

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You can still make out what the words are supposed to be. And all of the numbers came out.

But that's not good enough.

I checked the computer file. Sometimes the document was scanned that way, and there's nothing that you can do about it. But there is nothing wrong with the document:

There is a way to correct this error. I will change the page scaling on the printer settings.  I originally had it set at 'None'. This is the preferred setting for printing documents. We don't want to shrink any of the fonts on the Deed of Trust:

But for the HUD Settlement Statement, I want to get everything on the page. So I change the settings:

This is the result:

All of the letters printed out.

I could have left the document the way it was. The borrowers probably wouldn't have noticed or cared. You can still see the numbers. That's all that matters. Right? Wrong. 

Notary signing agents strive for perfection.

I have never thought of my website as an advertising tool. It's my way of sharing information with the public. So you won't see a lot of gaudy bells and whistles. No ads. No tricks or gimmicks. Mostly information.

But yesterday I discovered another reason for having a website.

I got a call to notarize a document for someone, as part of their loan modification. As usual, I asked him how he located me. He said, on the internet. There were some other notaries that he was considering calling. But he called me.

What was the difference?

He said he called me because I have a website. I didn't go into it with him. I simply nodded my head and proceeded with writing out his receipt.

You can interpret for yourself why a website made all the difference to this person. All that I will say is, if you don't have one, consider it.

Good luck.