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Glossary of Notary Public, Mortgage, Signing Agent, and Loan Signing Terms.

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Common Terms 1   Common Terms 2

Loan

Function: noun

A loan is a contract where a borrower agrees to borrower a certain amount of money from a lender at a specified interest rate, or an adjustable interest rate. The loan amount is guaranteed by the Deed of Trust or Mortgage document. The terms of the loan are described in the Note. Loans to non-commercial borrowers contain a Right to Cancel document where the borrower has 72 hours to cancel after the loan has been signed. The borrower can review the "Borrower copies" after the loan has been signed and cancel if they don't like any of the terms of the loan.

A loan signer or loan document signer is a notary public who specializes in facilitating loan signings. Their job is to supervise the signing, answer general questions, and notarize all documents that require notarization. All questions specific to the actual loan must be refered to the lender.

Every loan has an accompanying set of loan documents which are part of a loan package. Documents are typically put in a set order with the Deed of Trust on top, the Note, and many other standard documents as well as non-standard documents particular to the particular loan. One typical document is the Occupancy Affidavit where the borrower swears that they are the one's occupying the actual building as opposed to having it rented out to tenants. Another standard document in a loan is the loan application which is typically filled out long before the final loan signing takes place. Lenders typically mis-transcribe information onto the loan application leaving it filled with errors. The HUD-1 Settlement Statement is one of the most critical loan documents as it includes the final payoff information for all of the payments necessary associated with the loan. Some loan document packages include Grant Deeds or Quit Claim Deeds where a person can transfer a property to another person, or remove their name from a Deed.