In my experience, having conducted over 5,000 signings, borrowers often have trepidation at the signing table. For the most part, mortgage brokers don't even know that the docs have finally come together from the lender and that escrow has sent me to sign their clients. After the surprise of my calling them to schedule the signing, for which they had no "heads-up", The next thing that happens is "Sticker-Shock" because the estimated closing statement doesn't match what the broker had originally told them...
Then, they turn to me... and I am forced to say something like: "I am a notary public and not a broker nor an attorney. I am therefore unable to comment about the specifics of your deal or as to why a number is what it is. May I suggest you ring your broker?"
...I'm NOT IT!!
Here is a rant that I made on a notary forum...(wouldn't it be nice to team-up and have the same three people handling loans/deals together, so that there might be some level of familiarity and consistency in what gets presented to a borrower?...just a thought). Enjoy!
EVER WONDER WHY? By Shannon Ziccardi "A Quick Note" 
Take three entities, each with their own motives and each with their own set of rules. Let's call them 1. The Lender 2. Escrow (Title and Escrow if you prefer) and 3. The Mortgage Broker (or Loan Officer). Add to the mix the fact that each of these operates generally the same as others who are in the same position/field or with the same title but that they each have quirks that make their company "unique" (I'm trying to be kind with my word choice here in case you didn't catch it). Then consider the fact that each time a deal is done, all three of them will probably work with someone they never worked with before. Round out these three entities with a fourth,4. The Borrower/client/customer who is just a poor sap that needs a good deal. #4 is in way over his head, he doesn't typically know anything about 1-3 although on occassion, he thinks he knows it all (I call these signers "readers" because although they can't possibly understand a Deed Of Trust or a Note, they're going to be dang sure to figure it out while they are-that's right you guessed it-sitting at the signing table).
Next, consider that this diverse new group of "friends" each has their own level of compitency with regard to communication, not enough time to get their job done and is usually unable to make any one of the others understand what they need, want or why anything must be done a certain way....after all, 3/4 of this group will be doing this again next week with a whole different set of players. Don't forget to mix in the cast of characters on the other end of a phone line at the "Home Office" who add constant delay in getting the deal together until magically it chugs out of the 'ol laser printer on the last day to sign.....and it's always a "must sign today..."
After this sad, tortured little group has bent each other nearly to the point of breaking, then they call in the Notary. We offer our services, a disinterested third party without bias and acting only as a representative of the State in which we are commissioned. "But why do I have to fill out the insurance information?-I gave that to my broker already"...(You know why-Mr. Broker dropped the ball ....and it never got to Ms. Escrow Officer .....and that makes Mr. Lender nervous). Then they spend the 10 minutes or so that it takes to fill in all the details .....running back and forth across their house and muttering to themselves "Where did I put that?" only to find all that information is also pre-printed on another document just two more pages into the set.
While I know many ways to calm a borrower and get him/her moving forward when a broker cannot be reached (most signings occur in the evening when clients are at home), I still wish the process were smoother for the borrower's sake...after all, it's their money that floats all of our boats!
"A Quick Note"
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