By Lisa A. Tyler
National Escrow Administrator

In our industry, and certainly at our Company, we rely on our colleagues to close and insure every transaction. Sales representatives rely on settlement agents, who rely on title officers and so on, even down to the mobile signing agent. Without each team member the dream of homeownership and the closing of multimillion dollar transactions would not happen. In this edition, read "IT takes a village" to see how teamwork halted a forgery and saved the Company from a potential claim.

One of our offices conducted a closing on February 9, 2017, where a property was purchased by an unmarried, 61–year–old woman. Unbeknownst to us, she flipped and sold the property for a profit less than a month later. The funds to complete the purchase of the property came from a third party — a family trust. The trustee of the trust executed third–party deposit instructions. However, we later learned the home buyer scammed a 98–year–old man out of his life savings. Read "SHADY lady" to discover how she tricked him into giving his bank account information and his truck.

From time–to–time, settlement agents are faced with closing a transaction involving a principal who is incarcerated. Usually the principal is selling their property in order to pay for their legal defense or, in some cases, mortgaging their property to make bail. Whatever the reason, this type of transaction presents challenges to having the closing documents properly signed and notarized. Discover how to have closing documents signed from prison by reading "SIGNINGS conducted in prison for an inmate."

Be sure to answer the monthly document execution question to make certain you understand the tips shared and to increase your "PROPER document execution for recording and insuring" knowledge.