Just because closing day has come and gone doesn’t mean a title agent’s work is done. No matter where you close, skipping post-closing due diligence can leave you and your client vulnerable and this 90-second video tells you why.
There are so many reasons that title companies should be doing lien release tracking. We’ve rounded up three of the top ones that will either reaffirm your commitment to tracking, or make you want to reevaluate your own company’s processes. Here we go:
3. The process of releasing a lien is much more complicated than it used to be.
Wayyyy back in the day, mortgages were originated by the local bank down the street. So when it came time to file a lien release, it was just a short walk to the county recorder’s office to get it done. Now, thanks to technology and the secondary mortgage industry, things are not so simple.
Lenders are thousands of miles away and can no longer walk to the county recorder’s office and file that release. It’s no longer prudent to assume that a release has been filed.
Download the full list of the 7 Reasons You Need to be Tracking Every Lien Release
2. Ten million documents are rejected by county recorders every year.
Yep. This is a stat from Ernst Information services, and it’s pretty startling. Reasons cited by recorders for rejecting those documents include things like incorrect fees, unreadable documents, a notary seal that isn’t dark enough, or the docs were just sent to the wrong county.
So, even though you sent the payoff to the lender and they sent the release to be recorded by the county, the release may never be filed. Any number of minute mistakes made by the lender could mean the difference between a recorded release and a title curative issue down the road. That’s why someone has to follow up to make sure it’s done… which brings us to the final and most important reason.
1. It’s a core title service.
The most important of them all is that this is a core title service and it’s the responsibility of the title agent to ensure that the policy issued is for a truly marketable title.
In the event that you get the property again in the future, it’s your mess to clean up. Same thing if another title agent realizes you were the last one to do the closing. They’re going to want you to drop everything because there was a payoff that wasn’t followed up on.
Since no one wants to waste time with curative work down the road, a little more work post-closing will go a long way.
