Did You Know? Your Most Prized Possession

FYI: Your most prized possession is not your house, your stocks and bonds, your vintage car, your bank account. You, in fact, own just as much as the folks you feel have it all together and are financially secure.

Unfortunately, what most folks do not realize is that the most valuable possession any of us have, (which ALL of us have) is, in fact, our SIGNATURE.

Your SIGNATURE.

If you were asked to name the most valuable possession you have, almost none of you would have thought to say your signature. Most of us fail to realize the significance of our signature and how we alter our lives when we sign documents, totally changing the course which our lives will follow.

Consider: Your signature is required to validate:

• A marriage license
• A divorce decree
• Accepting a mortgage
• Agreement to build a house
• The co-signing of a loan
• A surgical procedure
• An abortion authorization
• A birth certificate
• The authenticity of your will
• The beneficiary on your life insurance policy
• Acceptance of a lien against your home when you refinance/take out an equity line
• Your acknowledgment of baptism
• Accepting a plea agreement
• The truthfulness of your tax returns
• The responsibility for a minor’s actions
• Your willingness to grant an adoption
• Your granting the power of attorney for another to act on your behalf
• Signing documents to authorize Madoff to invest your money
  

I could go on and on but I am sure that you would agree that your signature on any of the above mentioned documents all signify agreement with a life changing activity. It is simply a short step in thought process to see that if you withheld your signature, then the pendulum would have swung in a different direction. Consequently, your power to change the outcome hinges on whether or not you allowed the activity or prevented it: and that power is as simple as whether or not you signed the necessary documents.

How Should This Impact Your Behavior?

First, it should shake you up pretty seriously. Really. Think about how casually most of us sign things without thinking about the long terms implications. My personal commitment, since I realized this several years ago, is that I will NEVER sign important papers which require a signature to be valid the first time I see them. The ONLY reasonable exception in my opinion is in order to get medical attention, in an emergency. Since I have high blood pressure as well as a possibly fatal allergic reaction to bee stings, I would sign papers without even reading them for treatment of either one of those conditions.

For any other situation, I need to see the papers a day or two in advance so I have a chance to read over them. Then I can ask questions, do some research if I feel I need to, seek out the counsel of someone I trust and make an unrushed, educated decision about whether or not this is something I clearly want to do.

This is turning out to be a very long blog but I need to share this.

DON’T DO IT. Several years ago, just out of the blue, I started coughing up blood while on a vacation with my children. They were terrified and I was pretty scared myself. I had not even been sick. I spent a week in isolation in an out-of-state hospital while they checked for everything, including TB.

Since these little coughing spells occurred several times during that week, the consensus of the specialists there was that it was best to remove a lung in order to avoid a possible lung embolism and the likelihood of death. I REFUSED to sign and agree to the surgery because they could not tell me how the blood got into the lung in the first place and it appeared they wanted to remove a LUNG as a precautionary measure. That’s pretty serious, based on a hunch. I steadfastly refused, against their continued pressure to sign and agree to the surgery.

Five months later, two more little blood coughing spells, two exploratory surgeries and lots of tests and X-rays they finally did a thyroid scan. I had previously had thyroid surgery but who would have thought the stupid thing would regenerate and cause havoc again? We didn’t, but it had. Turns out my thyroid was totally out of control and causing bleeding, which pooled in my lung, leading to the coughing fits. Now we had an explanation which made sense.

I quickly granted permission for a second thyroid surgery (this time TOTAL removal of the pesky little gland). My family had not understood my refusal to have the lung surgery, but I will forever be grateful that I made a decision based on my strong conviction that I need to UNDERSTAND why I am doing something before I do it and that it cannot happen until I have signed papers granting permission.

My refusal to agree to the wrong surgery saved my LUNG.

Never forget: your most prized possession is in fact your scraggly signature. If it is significant enough to require a signature then it is significant enough to take some time to consider.

Check out the post for tomorrow to get the "definition" of Signature.

Copyright © 2008, Home Ownership Matters, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

(Please E-mail Heather at homeownershipmatters@gmail.com with any questions, comments or concerns you might have! We appreciate all comments and feedback, so please don't be shy.)

WORD: Signature

And the WORD for Today is:

Signature—your most prized possession. You should guard it like precious gold. Most people worry about having someone steal their possessions or the dangers of natural disasters. The reality is that the most financial harm caused throughout your life is likely to be caused by your “signature” on some document you did not fully understand. Whether that was a re-finance, an option arm, a new build with a 2-1 buy down or co-signing for your brother; your signature can directly lead to financial ruin. Promise yourself that you will never again sign any document that you do not fully understand. Take time to read it carefully, preferably a day or two before you sign it.

See yesterday's post for more information on just how powerful your signature is.

Copyright © 2008, Home Ownership Matters, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

You can find more helpful definitions of WORDS like these in Your Real Estate Advisor which can be purchased at www.DovePublishingHouse.com.

(Please E-mail Heather at homeownershipmatters@gmail.com with any questions, comments or concerns you might have! We appreciate all comments and feedback, so please don't be shy.)

Q&A: Signing Documents

Q. Signing Documents

My wife and I purchased a home a month ago and we have not felt good about the whole deal from the time we left the closing. The lender we used had told us that we would have to pay points to get the rate down so we could afford the payment and we agreed to that. The problem is that when we got to the closing, the amount they had on the loan documents was a lot higher than what we had been told earlier by our lender. The title company said there was nothing they could do about it and that we just had to sign the papers? Is that true? We felt trapped, had all our stuff packed and felt we had no choice except to go ahead. Now we are not so sure. Did we make a mistake and if so, what can we do about it now?

A. The answers to your questions, in the order in which you asked them are: No. No. Yes and Probably not much.

Let’s talk about your problem which, unfortunately, happens all the time to folks. I will address first this specific situation and then the general problem of papers which don’t match up to what you had been led to believe would be included.

It is the responsibility of a title company to handle all the details of the closing in accordance with state law and in compliance with the details in the contract signed by the seller and the buyer. In addition, the title company is obligated to accept instructions from the lender for many details associated with the closing. Those details include what forms should be in the closing package what amounts should be inserted in all the documents related to money, etc. SO, when the title company said there was nothing they can do, what they meant was, “There is nothing we can do UNLESS the bank gives us some other instructions.”

When you are closing a real estate transaction the title company is the facilitator for that transaction. For a large percentage of closings, the title company has no relationship with either party and is simply being paid to process the paper work and assure that it is a transaction which was properly and legally handled. But there are times when the title company is, in fact, an agent for a party to the transaction. This is called dual agency. This means they are working for one specific party to the deal. This is most common if you are buying a new construction home and the title company is the company picked by the builder (sometimes owned by the builder) to handle all their transactions.

In addition, if the home you are buying is a bank-owned home, then the title company is, in fact, working for the owner of the foreclosed property (whether that is a lender, servicer or insurer/investor). SO, when the title company said there was nothing they could do, what they meant was “There is nothing we can change UNLESS we get different instructions from our principal (the lender/servicer/insurer).

Did you make a mistake? I have to tell you that you did. It probably doesn’t make you feel a lot better to know that almost everyone makes the same mistake.

THE MISTAKE: Believing that because someone presented you with papers that you must sign them. You DO NOT have to sign them. No, you can not go ahead with the transaction unless you sign them, but that also means that the other people can’t get what they want either. If you insist that the papers have to be changed to what you were told before (especially if you have a good faith estimate which documents the amounts you should be paying) then there is a very strong chance that the lender will change their instructions to the title company, the papers will be changed accordingly and then all of you can re-convene in order to close the deal.

This is almost certainly not going to happen this afternoon. But it can happen. It is worth holding out for. It is worth making everyone else uncomfortable until you get the deal you were told you would be getting.

Is there anything you can do now? I doubt it because you signed all the papers. You used your most prized possession and endorsed yourself into a pickle. You can hold on to the lesson you learned, share it with others and promise yourself to never again sign documents which you don’t clearly understand or which do not correspond to the agreement with the other party.

JUST DON’T DO IT!

© Copyright 2009, Home Ownership Matters, LLC. All rights Reserved. "Answer Book in a Foreclosure Climate" by Mildred Wilkins, available in 2009 from www.DovePublishingHouse.com.

(Please e-mail Heather at homeownershipmatters@gmail.com with any questions, comments, or concerns you might have. We appreciate all feedback, comments, and especially your questions. Don't be shy!)