Conversations with an Escrow Officer
Susan, how did youbecome an Escrow Officer in the first place?
I was 18 years old and looking for a job, I contacted aemployment service and with the skills that I had, I had one interview and washired by Pioneer National Title Insurance at 45 W. Pennington.
Wow, so you’ve beendoing this all your life, no wonder you’re so good at it. I also notice you seem to take great joy indoing this work, what is it about Escrow that you enjoy so much?
I love the people; closing is my favorite part of my job.
What tips would yougive potential buyers and sellers who are thinking ahead and want to prepare tobuy or sell a?
I believe the most important thing buyers and sellers need todo is complete all documents that are requested of them the day they receivethe request.
That can be a littletough since there are so many papers, but I guess it doesn’t get any better ifyou wait. What’s the simple explanationfor what a title company does?
The title company performs a search and examination of thepublic records relating to the real property to be insured.
I guess they would belooking for problems, or clouds, on the title which might have to be fixedprior to closing. What sorts of thingsmight they find?
All sort of things, Mechanic Liens, Judgments, IRS taxliens, Unreleased but paid off Deeds of Trust, Parties not in title to theproperty, and deceased parties.
So to break this downa bit, Mechanic’s liens would be when a workman or contractor did work on ahouse and wasn’t paid? I understand thatcould stop a sale.
Potentially, yes.
And Judgments againsta homeowner or the IRS of course and I get the deceased parties who might stillbe named on the title, but what do you mean by “Parties not in title to theproperty?”
An example would be a spouse who didn’t sign a disclaimerdeed when the other spouse took title. In this state, we would need to clarify if the spouse had any right tothe property (even if the name was not on the title) prior to a sale.
Wow, there sure arelot’s of things to research. So, whatdoes an Escrow company do?
An escrow company is an independent "stake holder"account and is the vehicle by which the interest of all parties to thetransaction are protected.
So it’s more thanjust holding the earnest money in trust and swapping the funds for the propertywhen it is time.
Yes, much more.
Your job is to betruly independent and act as a sort of “go between” for Buyer, Seller, Lender,Agents and all other parties which might be involved in a transaction.
Yes.
What is the actualprocess of an Escrow from your point of view?
I have attached a document, “The life of an escrow”, whichis also on our website at Title Security
Who else is involvedfrom the Escrow and Title side of things (name the parties and describe theirduties – anyone who works on the deal)
Well, as you know, Licensed Real Estate Agents prepare thecontract and represents the buyer and seller, and a loan officer negotiates theloan terms if it’s not a cash sale; but we do have a few other departments thatare involved in the Escrow. One is theEscrow Support Processing Department; they order the title reports, payoffs andassociation information. We also have Recon/Tracking Department they obtain theDeeds of Releases from the lenders that we payoff. All in all it takes a teamof people on all sides of a transaction to sell a home.
Thanks Susan, thiswas a wonderful interview
If you would like tocontact Susan (or schedule a closing at her office) here are her contactnumbers and her company’s website:
Susan Farero, TitleSecurity
6390 E. Tanque Verde,Tucson, AZ 85715
Phone: (520) 885-1600
Fax: (520) 885-2309
Email susan.farero@titlesecurity.com
http://www.titlesecurity.com/index.htm?template=getDocument&docId=18&auth=109B06075C189D9DC95FA3C0A92520A5
http://www.titlesecurity.com/