Just a broker’s fee? Ha.

Several years ago, we were shorted $132,000 on a payoff. I never understood why it happened because our payoff demand is clear and detailed to the penny. A quick call to title resolved the issue, and we received the remaining balance the next day. No big deal, but it prompted us to make a few minor tweaks to our payoff process.

Among the changes, we added to our payoff demand letter that we request that title call us to verify the payoff amount and verbally confirm our wire instructions. You’d think they would do that without being asked, but apparently not.

Now, title always calls. It's interesting that we’re occasionally overpaid and almost always by a day of per diem interest.  In this case, I know the problem is that title doesn’t always know when their wire will go out, so they err on the side of caution with the payoff. This makes for a good excuse to have dinner with our borrower and hand them a check.