Interview with Randi Bennett: Escrows,Lessons Learned & Advice to Home Buyers & Home Sellers

Randi began her career in 1994,right here in Reno.  With over thirteen years of experience in title and escrow.  And with her incomparable attention to detail, organizational skills and dedication to superior customer service.  She is truly one of the most successful in her field in Reno & Sparks.

Note: This 3-part article is not meant to encompass all the details regarding the topics mentioned. 
Our hope is that through Randi's personal experiences we can all learn something new and hopefully aid us in our decision-making.

About: Randi explains what an escrow is in a nutshell.  She also tells us based from her experience the common problems that occur in real estate transactions for both the buyer and seller side.  And lastly, Randi shares to us what she would tell every home buyer if she had two minutes with them.

What is an escrow?

The Process is different on the West coast and the East coast.  On the West coast a lot of the parties don't meet with each other, whereas on the East coast it's called a round table closing. The buyers,sellers and lender gets together at one time.  All parties then exchange keys and checks and all right there. 

Well, on the West coast buyers come in to sign their loan papers and sellers come in to sign their closing papers.  Then we would have to send everything back to the lenders separately for review of it all one more time.  The lender then sends their money to escrow so we can close the escrow.  And closing for us means that we actually record at the County.  On the East coast they don't do that.  They kind of just record whenever they get the chance.      

What is done here at the title companies in Nevada is that title and escrow are usually within the same company.  So I'm escrow.   And basically what we are is a
disinterested third party. We help everybody and everybody gives us their information. (Buyer,sellers,lenders & Realtors tells us everything) and we don't get to share it with anyone. So we know all the information about the whole transaction to make it as smooth as possible.  That's the whole concept in a nutshell.

Having thirteen years of experience in Title and Escrow, what are the most common problems you have seen happen?

The buyer's money for closing.  What happens 98% of the time is that the buyers come in with the idea of how much they need to close with and the dollar amount is always different.

I mean it's very rare when the buyer comes into my office and says, "oh! Thats exactly what I was thinking  I'd have to come up with." that is very rare,  and usually it is more than what the buyers expect.

They have to keep in mind that the lenders only disclose to them the loan fees, they kind of have to keep it in the back of their mind that they have proration for taxes, sewer and all those little inspections.

And it could be upwards of a few thousand dollars. So if they're pretty close and they only have so much money to come in with and it comes in higher(than what they expected) at the last minute then that creates a problem. That is one of the biggest hiccups that happen in a transaction.

How about for the sellers side?

The seller's side is actually pretty easy.  Most sellers are pretty aware of the situation.  Most Realtors are very good in educating their clients.  They do a little net sheet form-letting them know how much  money they're going to get back.

The only shocker is their payoff. A lot of sellers think that the principal balance on their statements is the payoff, and it's not.

Interest always pays in the rear so if they made a November payment it only paid October's interest so you still have the entire month of November to pay the interest. So they're thinking their payoff is $199,000, well the payoff comes in at $202,000 That is a $3,000 difference.  That could make or break the deal. That's $3,000 they weren't expecting to pay out.

Always be aware that the payoff is little higher than whats written in the statement.

Between the two (buyer and seller) it's usually the payoff is underestimated and the buyer is under quoted.

Your advice for buyers:  if you had two minutes to spend on every home buyer, what would you tell them?

My first advice would probably be  to put yourself with a great Realtor, you really need to surround yourself with a Realtor that you can believe in, especially the first time home buyers. They've never been in that process before.

Buyers want to make sure that the Realtor is educated that he/she is going to empower them to understand how the whole process  works.  From looking up properties to showing properties, to viewing homes to writing a contract. All that kind of stuff could be overwhelming.

Once you find the house of your dreams then the rest is pretty much paper work.  You have to trust your Realtor to fill up the offer properly  to do it to the best of their abilities.   And that they can get the repairs taken 'care' of for you and making sure that the escrow goes through smoothly and that they've connected you to a good lender.  I think my best advise is, "to hire A great Realtor."

Continue on to Interview with Randi Part Two

Related reading:

• Why do banks take so long to approve a short sale?

• Confessions of a short sale expert

• Introducing a simple guide to short sale

• Randi Bennett talks about short sales and foreclosures

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