Does this sound familiar? You’re juggling multiple files while trying to maintain your sanity and keep your clients happy at the same time. You finally make it to closing day and all you can think about is trying to get through the looming mountain of paperwork. The last document is signed and sent out… and that’s it — you’ve done it! Now you have about 3 seconds to pat yourself on the back before you hop onto the next client’s closing. In the constant chaos that is the life of a title agent, it’s easy to forget about your post-closing duties when you can barely keep your head above water with never-ending “I needed this yesterday” tasks!
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Are your current practices for release tracking the best practices?
You’re busy, we know that. So, here’s a quick rundown of common questions we hear and the answers explaining why you should be paying attention to mortgage releases and satisfactions after closing.
Q: What if you sent the payoff to the bank but a satisfaction or release was never recorded?
A: You, as the title agent, are responsible for making sure the satisfaction gets recorded. Lenders can have clerical errors, misapply funds, lose account termination letters, or have accounting discrepancies. Clerks can incorrectly record satisfactions. Things get lost in the mail (or, cyberspace). If the satisfaction isn’t there, you need to figure out the problem and get the issue resolved.
Q: What can happen if you slip up and forget to make sure the lender released the seller’s mortgage after closing?
A: Depending on the type of mortgage, this could mean different things. In the case of a HELOC mortgage where a satisfaction is never recorded, then sure, it could just be a clerical error on the lender’s end. But, it could also indicate that the account (though paid down to zero) was never closed, and that seller might still be able to use that line of credit even though they don’t own the home anymore!
Q: I’ve never tracked mortgage releases before — is it really that big of a deal?
A: Yes! Not only is it part of the core title services and a tenant of best practices, but satisfactions and releases that are never recorded could result in a title claim.
Q: I’ve never had an issue with recordings after closing, so I don’t know why I would need to do this now.
A: It’s possible that you will never know there was an issue with your post-closing recordings until years after — when an issue arrives in the form of a title claim. Why would you wait to find out, when you could be proactive about it? Why leave it to chance just because you haven’t had a problem… yet?
The bank can take up to 60 days to file satisfactions! Wouldn’t it be awesome to never worry about following up them after you’ve closed ?
That’s where PropLogix comes in. With release tracking, we do the follow up for you. We make sure your mortgages and all other liens that require a subsequent recording are properly released and recorded. And if they’re not, we will resolve them for you!
