Job Description: Closing Agent. Must be professional, well groomed, articulate, with at least two years formal education in real estate closings and real estate law. Paralegal experience preferred…..Jill is a professional independent closing agent. Each day at the end of her appointments, she stops by the office and picks up her files for the next day. She calls her clients, makes appointments to meet at their home or office and plans out her day.
After going over each file line by line and comparing all contracts with the loan papers, she double checks for correct name spelling, addresses and terms of loan. She then plots out her next day’s appointments on Google maps and insures she has driving directions so that she is not wasting time sitting in traffic. At $150.00 per closing she strives to do 6 - 8 closings a day. She earns a year end bonus for such items as correctness, promptness, customer service and absence of reworks in her case files. She routinely earns $250,000 per year and can count on a bonus of 5% which is another $12,500 coming in at Christmas time. She would like to make a larger income and she is contemplating hiring an assistant to handle some of the details and scheduling so that she can possible move her closings into the 10 - 12 range per day. Above all she must maintain her customer service and accuracy . It is a grueling job and pace, but with the help of a $75,000 dollar assistant, she feels it is a workable plan and she will be able to make her business more productive and cut back on her 18 hour days........
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Joe, Nancy and Barney are career civil service people who have transferred to the new ‘Department of Loan Closings‘, instigated by HUD under the direction of the Administration. They all came over from Department of Children & Families where they processed food stamp applications, and have no customer service experience and no experience in dealing with consumer loans. However! They are career bureaucrats and must be allowed to make lateral moves to new Departments if their jobs are in danger.
All three shuffle into work 10 minutes late with coffee and donuts and stand eyeballing the teaming masses waiting in the outer office with little red numbers in their hands. After arriving at their desks, they check email, go through correspondence and idly flip through the newspaper for the latest on lottery numbers, clothing sales and the racing form. Finishing up his coffee, Joe goes out to the waiting area and calls for Number 1. A harried woman brings her stack of material to the front desk and Joe waives her back to his desk.
“Yeah, what can I do for ya?”
“Well, I am here for a loan closing!”
“Ok, fill out this form and let me look at your paperwork.”
Joe, takes the stack of agonizingly prepared material, shuffles through it and asks stupid questions about the terms, appraisal and other items that he should be up to speed on.
“OK, I see hear that you are putting down $25,000 in cash. Have you filled out the IRS form and declared where this money came from?”
“It came from the closing on our last house.” Says the lady.
“Have you got the previous closing with you.”
“Well no, that’s over and done with.”
“Lady, we have to know where that money came from, Ya Know?”
“Here take this form to IRS and come back when it’s completed.”
“But, I had to take a day off work to come here!”
“whadya want from me lady, I don‘t make the rules!”
“When you finish with IRS and have what you need, come back and take a number…….. (Jeez, what’s this rich old broad want? I should work through my break?)
Think about what it’s like going to Social Security, the Driver’s License Office, Building Codes, any Permitting Office,…. And ask yourself if you want more government intervention in the private sector?
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