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When Signing a Mortgage is Final

“After we signed escrow documents, we noticed that the fee was more than we were told. Can we rescind? Can we ask the lender to delete the fee? Can we choose a different lender?”

If your loan is a refinance, you have three days after signing to rescind or cancel. One of the documents you sign in a refinance explains this and even includes the date by which you have until midnight to cancel. Simply sign that rescission notice and scan/email/fax it to your lender. This cancels your loan completely and enables you to renegotiate or even go to a different lender.

If your loan is a purchase of real estate, then no, you cannot cancel after signing final loan documents. Nor do you have the legal right to ask for any changes in financing. Why?

Because you received the Closing Disclosure three days before signing. The law gives you that time ahead of signing to ask questions and request any needed changes.

This is a good lending law, because it gives time for corrections and still close on time, according to your Purchase Contract, and without negatively impacting the seller.

Additionally, when you are at the signing table, you can stop, pick up the phone and call your loan officer. If there are errors, the loan officer can get those pages corrected, often while you wait; or worse case, by the next day.

You can stop signing, stand up, and walk out. Don’t sign contractual documents with the wrong interest rate or incorrect fees.

Don’t sign without looking at what you are signing!

If you don’t understand something, call your loan officer and ask before placing your signature on the line. One of the pages you sign says you have read everything, agree to it all, and understand what you’re signing. So you cannot later claim you didn’t understand.

There is plenty of opportunity to read the documents and ask questions, and it is your right and responsibility to do so. Never let anyone bully you into signing something you don’t like or understand.

If you have any questions about this, please reply in comments. As always, thank you for reading.

 

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