I have witnessed many closings as a notary signing agent, and seen many changes. One of the biggest changes in loan closings is merely the fact that a borrower can do their closing in their own home, or wherever they choose. I'm often told by borrowers that they are amazed that this is possible. They really appreciate it.
What they don't appreciate is the amount of paper.
Admittedly there are very many documents that the borrower has to sign. I don't mince words when they ask me how long it should take. I tell them to expect to spend around an hour. Although I have had closings that took twice as long. There are always going to be borrowers who want to read all of the documents.
In an effort to reduce the amount of paper documents that borrowers have to sign, eSignings were introduced. The borrowers are able to sign their loan documents with an electronic signature. They can sign one document, or several documents at once.
But there are problems with eSignings. One of them is that they require access to the internet. This isn't available in all areas. Especially some rural areas in Colorado. And even if there is internet access, there is no guarantee that everything will go smoothly. This is the reason why the option is available to print the documents to paper. And even when things do go well, there is still an enormous amount of paper documents that the borrowers have to sign. The last eSigning I did, there were approximately 15 documents that required an electronic signature, and 111 pages of paper documents that the borrowers had to sign. Which brings us back to where we started -- too much paper.
So what will the next frontier in loan closings be?
My hope is that it will be a step towards simplicity. One way to reduce the amount of paper would be to reduce the number of documents. There is a lot of redundancy in the loan documents. I had one closing in which there were 6 legal descriptions, 2 signature affidavits, and a lot of other documents that really didn't need to be included. There is also a way to combine the documents so that they serve multiple purposes.
Normally when we think of progress and new frontiers, we think of advancements in technology. No, loan closings don't need any new technologies.
Just keep it simple.
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