The Veridian Blog

Ideally for all, it is best for buyers and borrowers to sign the loan documents themselves. In this day and age, however, we are sometimes busy travelling and cannot be physically present when loan documents are ready to sign.  These situations will arise where it is difficult, or too time-consuming to ship documents out of town or overseas, find a notary or comparable signing authority that will satisfy international laws as well as the lender’s guidelines. Too often, a common error or a missed notary stamp can unhinge the entire fire drill and land you back at square one.

In such situations, it is a good idea for a borrower to execute a Limited Power of Attorney (POA) to authorize another person (usually the spouse) to sign on his or her behalf. If your client does not have a spouse to grant the power to, then I would still recommend a trusted family member. Beyond that, too many complications can arise that may land your client (and you) in a heap of legal mess if something goes awry.  The document grants limited authority to transact matters pertaining to the subject property on behalf of the signor.  Before your client leaves, have him or her execute the POA in front of a licensed notary and contact the lender to see if they need to review the document before docs are sent to escrow to prevent delays.

Once the documents are ready, the person holding the POA will sign every initial and signature block as “Name of Client, by Name of Person, as his attorney in fact”.  Sure, this is a lot of writing and hand cramps are likely, but it is certainly worth the headache of shipping documents back and forth with no guarantee that things will go smoothly.