Escrow Agent License Application Instructions: Fill & Download for Free

I’ll answer from a U.S. perspective—when you pose a question anonymously, as you did, there’s no way to know what your circumstances are.Real estate transactions almost always use a third-party to handle the escrow. It may be a title company, stand-along closing services company or real estate lawyer, depending on the state. The purpose of the escrow is to ensure that all the parties get what they have agreed to—that no one can pull a fast one at the last minute. The “buyer’s instructions” that you sign at close of escrow must agree perfectly with your contract and any amendments that the principals have agreed to. The principals are the buyer (you), the seller, and the lender. The real estate agents and the escrow company are facilitators, not principals in the transaction.There should be a paper trail of all disclosures from the beginning. Each time a disclosure is issued, you most acknowledge it, typically by signing it electronically or “wet” signing it (printing it and signing it by hand). Without that acknowledgement, there is no proof that the disclosures have been issued according to law.There are certain timelines during which disclosures must be issued under the law. Once your application has your name and social security number, a property address, your income, loan amount and an estimate of the property’s value, you have an “Application” in the regulatory sense. Before those six elements are listed, you have a “credit inquiry.”When you have an “Application,” the lender must issue a “Loan Estimate” within three business days. If there are any changes between that time and the signing of documents, they must issue a Notice of Changed Circumstances and an amended Loan Estimate. You must acknowledge each one of these disclosures in order for them to be valid.The lender must issue a Closing Disclosure three days before “consummation” (signing of loan documents). The CD has the final numbers of the transaction. The three day period is intended to give the borrower time to review all the numbers before signing.If there were any disclosures during the process that you did not acknowledge, the lender cannot proceed with the transaction. You should have received at a minimum two separate disclosures containing the numbers: the initial Loan Estimate and the Closing Disclosure. If you did not lock your rate at the time of submitting your application, the lender would have issued a second LE when you locked your rate.I am providing a lot of background information before giving you a direct answer to your question, but I think it’s important for consumers to understand the process—especially as it relates to required disclosures.The simple answer to your question is: yes. No one can force you to proceed with a purchase against your will. You could be sitting at the closing table with your arms folded and say, “Nope, not gonna do it,” and nobody could make you sign the closing documents.However: if turned out that the lender had done its job of disclosing properly during the course of the deal and you simply had a change of heart, the buyer could keep your earnest money deposit as “liquidated damages.” If you could show that anyone in the transaction—lender, seller or escrow company—had behaved improperly, you might have a defense, but you’d have to be able to produce documentation to make that case conclusively.Please note: I AM NOT A LAWYER. I’m just a long-time real estate broker and mortgage loan officer. You should not construe anything I’ve written as legal advice. For that, you should consult a duly licensed attorney in your state.With that said, however, I urge you to sit down with your loan officer and your real estate agent to work out some sort of solution that will work for everyone. Litigation (or arbitration) is expensive and stressful for all involved.I hope this is helpful. Good luck.

You’ve gotten four answers to your question so far, not including this one. Three of them were good, and one chided you for not asking in the “right” way. I hope you’ll disregard that one. Your question is absolutely valid.For most people, buying a home involves a mortgage. Therefore, your home buying process should start with prearranging your financing. This involves finding a lender and beginning an application for pre-approval. The lender will evaluate your income, assets and credit and will give you a tentative loan approval.There are several degrees of pre-approval:A “pre-qual” This is essentially an opinion from a loan officer that you may be qualified for a purchase under specified terms. The loan officer will look at your credit and some sort of documentation for income and assets. A pre-qual is essentially meaningless, and sellers generally won’t give them much weightA “pre-approval” Here, the lender has pre-underwritten your file, evaluating all the documentation needed for a credit approval. The loan officer typically will submit your file to the Automated Underwriting Service, receiving findings of “Approve/Eligible” or “Accept,” depending on which system they use. They will issue a pre-approval letter based on those findingsA “TBD Approval” The loan application goes to an underwriter for review and approval, just as though it were a live deal, even though the property is To Be Determined (TBD). This is the best of the three alternatives, because it means that your loan has been approved and is merely waiting for a purchase contract, appraisal and other documents specific to the property.Setting up your financing, you’ll provide at a minimum of a full month’s income pay stubs and a month’s pay stubs. You’ll have to provide evidence that you have been in the same line of work for at least two years. It is possible to waive the two year requirement by showing that you have been in school or some training program for the field where you work now. Government-insured FHA loans are the most lenient with regard to the time employed.I highly recommend finding a local, independent lender to work with. Big banks. such a s the Too-Big-To-Fail institutions, do offer mortgages, but their loan officers are primarily sales people, and typically are not equipped to offer advice or assist in the loan process. A loan officer (broker or banker) who’s independent and local to you is more likely to be able to guide you through the process.Once you have arranged your financing, you can start to look at property. Find a Realtor who’s committed to working with you—then stick with them; don’t flit from one agent to another without a very good reason.There is an old saying among Realtors (I learned it when I was first licensed in 1977):Buyers are LiarsThis may seem harsh and cynical, but the fact is that agents work with buyers in hopes of ultimately getting paid—it’s all on “spec.” They’ll spend a great deal of time on your behalf, researching properties, showing them to you and writing offers. They may have to show many properties and write many offers before getting one accepted. They are really running on faith. As long as your Realtor is doing a good job for you and staying in contact with you, reciprocate their loyalty to you with loyalty of your own.When you find a property you’d like to buy, you’ll have your Realtor write a formal offer. This document will contain all the terms of your proposed purchase, including price, down payment, financing, and all other particulars of your purchase. Nothing—and I mean nothing—should be left to chance. Everything in a real estate purchase must be in writing and spelled out in complete detail.When you make your offer, you’ll include a deposit check, usually made out to the title company or escrow holder. It is called an earnest money deposit (EMD) to show you are serious—in earnest. It is also a requirement of a contract to have “consideration.” This means something of value.There is no specific or prescribed amount needed for your EMD, but more is always better. Technically, a dollar would do the trick, but in reality, it should be much more. Here in my area, Northern California, where prices are quite high, buyers typically put up $5,000-$10,000 or more, depending on the price of the property. The EMD will be part of the money you pay to complete your purchase.You don’t risk a single penny of this deposit. If you and the seller can’t come to terms, you’ll get your check back; it doesn’t get deposited until you and the seller have a deal.The seller has three choices when you make an offer:They accept your offer as writtenThey reject your offer (including not responding to it at all)They give you a counter-offfer. The seller may be asking $200,000, but you offer $190,000. The seller gives you a counter-offer for $195,000. You, in turn, can take any of the same three actionsWhen you and seller have a meeting of the minds, your offer becomes a contract.Your purchase contract will contain certain contingencies. These are terms in the contract that require certain things to happen in order for the transaction to proceed. Two of the most important are the loan contingency and the appraisal contingency.The loan contingency states that you have some period of time—typically 17–21 days—to get confirmation of your loan approval. If your financing falls through for some reason, you get to walk away from the deal, and you’ll get your deposit back.The appraisal contingency states that if the appraisal for the property states that the property is worth less than what you have agreed to pay for it, you get to walk away. If that happens, you’ll get your deposit back. In practice, buyer and seller typically sit down and renegotiate a different price in cases like this.All the paperwork will be coordinated by a escrow holder. This is a neutral third party who will ensure that everyone gets what they bargained for. The escrow holder operates on written instructions from the buyer and the seller, and everyone has to agree. Escrows are often run by title companies, but there are also independent escrow companies. Some states use specialized lawyers to handle real estate closings.When all the pieces of the puzzle—the buyer’s written instructions, the seller’s instructions and the lender’s instructions—are in agreement, the escrow is said to be “complete” or “perfect.” At that time, the escrow officer will record certain documents with the county where the property is located. The most important ones are the grant deed and the deed of trust.The grant deed is the document, signed by the seller, that transfers the property to you. When the county recorder accepts it and time-stamps it, the ownership of the property transfers to you. The deed of trust is the lender’s security for the loan. It is analogous to the bank’s holding the pink slip to secure a car loan.Congratulations. You are now a homeowner!A couple of other points to mention:First, in order to enter into a contract, you must be of legal age—at least 18. Second, it is very good that you are asking this question at such a young age. Owning one’s own home is the way most families are able to build wealth over time.Finally, if you’d like to get some more background on the home buying process, you might find my video series, Homebuying 101, to be useful. This is one of the few times I’ve every plugged my blog on Quora, so you should feel special.I hope this is helpful—and I wish you the very best.

When you make an offer to buy real estate, you are entering into an executory contract. This is an agreement which is in the process of being performed.At the simplest level, A Residential Purchase Agreement (RPA) says, “I’ll buy your house for this many dollars, within this agreed period of time. The seller’s signature on the form signifies their agreement and creates obligations on each party.One element of an enforceable contract is consideration. This means “something of value.” It is most commonly a check of some substantial amount (typically 1%-3% of the offered price). It is called an earnest money deposit (EMD). It is money to show that you are serious—”in earnest.”If you fail to perform your obligations under the contract, the seller may be able to keep your deposit. To protect you, there are certain terms in the RPA called contingencies. The most common are the contingencies for appraisal and loan.The appraisal contingency says, “If the appraiser doesn’t think this house is worth what I have agreed to pay for it, I get to cancel the deal and the seller will return my deposit to me.” If a property’s appraisal is lower than the agreed purchase, the buyer and seller most commonly renegotiate the price. Even in a very “hot” market, sellers are reluctant to lose an active and qualified buyer.The loan contingency says, “This agreement is subject to my getting approved for a loan at the terms I’ve outlined in my offer. If the lender doesn’t approve my application, I get to cancel the agreement and get my deposit back.”Contingencies for all purposes have an agreed time limit. In California, it’s typically 17 days, but buyer and seller may agree to a longer or shorter time frame.Once you remove a contingency, such as a loan contingency, your deposit is at risk. If there is a delay in getting your loan approved within the time period specified, the seller’s agent may start pressing your agent to remove the loan contingency. If you do this and you can’t get the loan for some reason, you could lose your earnest money deposit. Be very careful before when agreeing to remove this important safeguard.You should also be aware of what closing costs you agree to pay, which ones the seller will pay, and which ones you might share. Some of this is driven by local custom. In Northern California, it is customary for the buyer to pay their escrow fees and both policies of title insurance. In Southern California, the seller often pays those items. Similarly, there is a transfer tax based on the sales price of the property. It’s $1.10 per thousand. In Northern California, the seller typically pays it, but none of these items is carved in stone. Even though there may be costs typically handled by the buyer in your area, there is nothing wrong with asking the seller to pay them.The typical CAR Residential Purchase agreement is ten pages, plus a couple of addendums. Before you sign any offer, you should go through every page—even though much of it is boilerplate—and make sure the costs and other terms are exactly what you intend. I was involved in a sizeable transaction a few years ago where the buyer (my borrower) asked the seller to pay about $8,000 in closing costs. Her agent wrote that request in plain language on Page 3 of the RPA. She also asked the seller to leave all the appliances.The seller’s agent neglected to inform his client that he’d be paying those costs and leaving those items. The seller had relied on the agent to guide him through the contract and was surprised to discover that he’d be paying closing costs and leaving the appliances. The agent, who had not done his job properly, gave up every dime of his commission because of his lack of diligence. He was lucky to keep his license.The lesson is that any buyer should be very familiar with the terms of the contract before they sign it. The typical purchase contract was written by attorneys, but in language that any consumer and their agent should be able to understand. It was drafted with an eye to consumer protection, but reading and understanding it is a must.I hope this is helpful.