How to Prevent Real Estate Closing Fraud and Costly Signing Mistakes

Marcia Boyer (00:00)
I would also say, as much as it’s a positive note, the remote online notarization, I think it’s a huge risk as well. ⁓ and mainly that comes from the fraud and the scams that are out there, making sure that people are using something that I like to call KBA verification. ⁓ if we’re not using that kind of verification when we’re bringing that client online to accept a document from them, very much potential for fraud.

And if you guys don’t know what KBA is, that’s basically like the credit verification. When you go to pull your credit report and it asks you those really weird questions that only you would know the answer to because it was like 1989, what car did you own? Those are the types of things that we do when we do our Ron to make sure that it is actually the person who’s supposed to be signing that document, signing it. It does a video capture of their face, though they’ve got to turn their head. It’s capturing their IDs, two forms of it.

Scott Bursey (02:28)
Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros podcast powered by Investor Fuel. I’m your host, Scott Bursey And today we’re joined by the CEO of Delaware Mobile Signings, Marcia Boyer, with a powerhouse background spanning mortgage, finance, and the title industry. Marcia has become a go to expert for streamlining complex real estate loan closings. She’s built an agency that defines on the go efficiency.

Pros get ready to dive into the operations of high level closings and what it takes to master the logistics of a deal. Marcia, welcome to the show.

Marcia Boyer (03:03)
Thank you. It’s a pleasure to be here.

Scott Bursey (03:05)
It is awesome having you here and to help our listeners get up to speed. Please give us the ninety second highlight reel and how your career ignited and where you’re pouring your fuel now.

Marcia Boyer (03:15)
So thank you so much. so Delaware Mobile Signings has been my baby since about 2019. It was, I guess you could say, born out of desperation, if you will. Everybody knows what happened around that time. I was a single mom, two kids in college, one in middle school, and I was working two full-time jobs and the bottom fell out from under me because my part-time job was a travel agent.

And I was like, I have all these skills. What do I do? Because I still have to pay tuition and buy books and keep my kids in school. So I found out that you know, notary was a thing. I’d already been doing it for years, but I started Delaware Mobile signings because I saw families struggling during that time to be able to get things accomplished and completed. And being that one of my jobs.

allowed me to be out on the road that time because I was a mandatory worker. I was able to get those things done for clients, get their real estate closing still finished in the courtesy of their homes, whether we were in full suits or we were standing outside. And I realized then that the same thing was happening with elderly in the nursing homes. They weren’t being able to get their documents completed. And

It was a major pivot for me because prior to me working those two corporate jobs, I had been a social worker for years. And it just it played on my heartstrings and it gave me a passion and a drive. And I kind of pivoted my whole life to now this is my world and my passion of helping people through paperwork, through you know, having the knowledge of how things operate in Delaware. So this is

Where we are and it’s been a joy and a pleasure.

Scott Bursey (05:02)
Marcia, that is an incredible, inspiring journey. Thank you for highlighting that. It really sets the stage for how much grit it takes to move deals forward. And Marcia, you know what really caught my attention about you was the way you’ve been able to turn the traditionally stagnant world of loan closings into a streamlined on the go experience for clients. And on that note.

It’s been incredible seeing you navigate the complexity. What would you say was the specific aha moment, if you will, that made you realize mobile signings ⁓ could be a full scale agency model?

Marcia Boyer (06:29)
⁓ I think that it was a situation when I started with it was a specific nursing home. I went to them and they were in such a dire struggle to make sure that their clients were maintained ⁓ and not too far from a hospital. So that social worker contacted me and just listening to her struggle, hearing what the clients were going through.

It gave me this determination of like there’s gotta be a service, a system. There’s gotta be a way to to fill this hole because it’s costing people, some of them their lives and their completely their livelihood. So that was kind of my aha pivotal moment for that, because in 2021, which is it’s little, ⁓ I actually lost my mother.

And at the time, I already had this business, but I didn’t realize how many people didn’t do their paperwork. And my mom, being an accountant, being a business major, knowing what I did for a living, and she was the one who encouraged me to step out on my own and do this, she had none of her paperwork done. And me having to go through that as a single child, because I’m the only child myself with kids, I was like, who?

Why don’t people know that this needs to happen? Like what is stopping people from getting all of their documents, their proper things in place? Making sure that, you know, your deeds on your mortgage have all of the correct family members on it. So it’s not a problem for them in the future. You know, making sure that like death on deed paperwork is done if you want it to happen at that time. Wills, power of attorneys, medical health directors, like I learned the hard way, how important having your ducks and paperwork in a row.

was and it became a thing that I I can’t not be passionate about making sure that people are putting things in place for themselves and their children, be it real estate wise, personal wise, or trust wise for the rest of the stuff in your future.

Scott Bursey (08:30)
That makes total sense. And I appreciate you sharing that shift in perspective. It’s a great lesson for our pros. And Marcia, it’s fascinating to see how you handle volume. What do you see as the biggest internal strength when managing these complex signings?

Marcia Boyer (08:47)
I would say the coordination, because there’s a lot of hands in the pot when you’re talking about a real estate ⁓ project. It can be as little as seven, which is like the minimum number I’ve ever seen, to as many as twelve to thirteen people trying to get one deal to go through. So having excellent communication, and I, you know, I tell people the AI, a lot of people don’t like it.

But knowing that you’re getting an immediate response or that somebody at least knows that you sent something is amazing. And that’s something that a lot of the realtors, the escrow officers, they want to know immediately. Like they feel like your client is the only client in the world. And you might have 30, but their client is the only client in the world. And you need to treat them like that.

Scott Bursey (09:33)
Absolutely. I love that. And Marcia, our pros are interested in your growth hurdles. Where do you find the most friction when trying to scale your mobile signing operations?

Marcia Boyer (09:45)
I would say lead generation to an extent. ⁓ but I would say our biggest hurdle is making sure that we’re in a lot of compliance because with our clients coming from different states, the compliance for each state is different. So that’s our biggest thing is making sure that, you know, Delaware allows me to be a witness on Delaware signings.

But you can’t do that in Texas or Florida. So making sure that my staff knows, hey, these are the state regulations and staying fully in compliant with that so that no closings fall through the cracks, that’s our biggest making sure we’re not missing any of those res recitive. ⁓ I can’t even say it right. Recision dates. There we go. That’s what I was looking. Not to miss any of those rescission dates.

Scott Bursey (10:35)
That is so smart. That’s great stuff, Marcia. And tell us about the landscape. What is the biggest opportunity you see for title and closing companies to, you know, modernize in the next, let’s say, 12 months?

Marcia Boyer (11:25)
So I would definitely say the Ron is going to be a huge impact, the remote online notaries compared and and combined with DocuSign. So I think what’s going to happen is they’re going to need to start finding companies and real estate agents and notaries who are able to do those hybrid types of things where we’re able to run out to the client if that document needs to be ink signed, but we can also do that remote closing for them.

As well as make sure that like our service, we’re a third party ship location. So we never have to worry about did FedEx show up or is it DHL on time or did UPS get the documents because they’re picking up from us daily. So that’s one of the things to make sure that that happens because if it’s say not a remote closing and they needed, I don’t know, three pages in ink, but everything else was done remote, we need to make sure that those ink pages are getting out to them immediately. So

Being able to cover all of those bases in a closing is going to start to become very, very important because we’re noticing some notaries, they don’t have the ability to take their laptop out to the client and make sure the client’s doing that docusign while they’re doing the wet sign. Or they’re not checking to make sure that the client has wet doc, I’m sorry, doc-signed before they arrive with the wet sign documents. Also having a location where the clients can come in.

and handle all of that if they don’t want someone coming to their home. So we’re trying to make sure that at least in Delaware and Maryland, we have complete wraparound services for those title and escrow agents. So they’re not running around looking for, you know, different services to get that handled.

Scott Bursey (13:01)
That’s a bold vision. Thanks for shedding light on where the puck is moving. And you did mention AI, but is there any other pieces of tech you’re betting on to make that happen?

Marcia Boyer (13:13)
So we of course use a CRM. Our CRM is our bread and butter. We’ve been with the same company for about six years now. Will not give them up. ⁓ just making sure that when a client contacts us, their entire ecosystem is in one place on one screen. We don’t have to question, hey, did we send them an SMS? Who was the last to contact them? It’s all right there for us.

That’s been a major thing because we know when to go retarget them. If they haven’t heard from us in a month or we haven’t heard from them, our system is automatically doing this.

Scott Bursey (13:49)
Definitely. Certainly an area to watch. Thank you for ⁓ highlighting that as far as the CRM goes. Appreciate that.

Marcia Boyer (13:56)
Well I wouldn’t know how a real estate agent would work without a C RM. Like it it I don’t know how they would keep all the listings straight and you know, the clients that they’re showing them without a CRM.

Scott Bursey (14:07)
Extremely, extremely ⁓ necessary. Absolutely. And it would be great to hear your take on the risks. What do you feel is the biggest threat to the traditional closing model today, in your view?

Marcia Boyer (14:21)
I would also say, as much as it’s a positive note, the remote online notarization, I think it’s a huge risk as well. ⁓ and mainly that comes from the fraud and the scams that are out there, making sure that people are using something that I like to call KBA verification. ⁓ if we’re not using that kind of verification when we’re bringing that client online to accept a document from them, very much potential for fraud.

And if you guys don’t know what KBA is, that’s basically like the credit verification. When you go to pull your credit report and it asks you those really weird questions that only you would know the answer to because it was like 1989, what car did you own? Those are the types of things that we do when we do our Ron to make sure that it is actually the person who’s supposed to be signing that document, signing it. It does a video capture of their face, though they’ve got to turn their head. It’s capturing their IDs, two forms of it.

So those are the main things, making sure that they’re fully in compliant with those remote signings and they’re using proper platforms that are capturing all of that information. Because if not, I could see a big free for all happening with closings and other documents as well.

Scott Bursey (15:35)
That is a very real concern and I appreciate you flagging that for us. We spoke a little bit about the short game for your company, but tell us in regards to Delaware mobile sightings, what is the the vision long term?

Marcia Boyer (15:51)
So long term right now we’re in talks with some partners in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. So it may be, I would say, the 10 to 15 year plan, but we’d love to take over the the northern east coast. Or at least the peninsula, because you know, we’re in Delaware. So if we can, you know, just take over that that section of the peninsula, we would love to do that.

Scott Bursey (16:13)
that’s awesome. And Marcia, we’re really keen to learn if you had to pivot your business model overnight, let’s say, what part of your expertise would you lean on the most?

Marcia Boyer (17:06)
If I had to pivot overnight, being that we’re Delaware and everybody knows Delaware is the business capital of the world, we are a registered agent. I would probably fully pivot to our registered agent services and process serving if I had to pivot overnight. That’s what it would be.

Scott Bursey (17:24)
Appreciate you highlighting that. And quick thought on your network. What does your professional network look like right now?

Marcia Boyer (17:30)
⁓ actually really big, which is surprising. ⁓ I didn’t realize what it was, but ⁓ less than a couple of weeks ago, we actually did a presentation for Governor Carney here in Delaware, ⁓ working with MT Bank, True Access Capital, ⁓ the Delaware Black Business Caucus here, ⁓ Central Delaware Business Caucus. So we’ve actually acquired a lot of people, and it’s weird for me now because

I didn’t think people knew who I was when I walked into a room, because I just don’t tend to think of myself in that way. But for me to walk in and say my company name and people look at me and be like, I’ve heard of that or I’ve seen that is shocking to me. ⁓ and then I just had a very, very good real estate customer that I’ve been working with for like four years. And he stated to me when he took me out to breakfast one morning, he’s like, Hey, do you know that you’re the

biggest notary company in the state of Delaware. And I was like, are you sure? And he’s like, yeah, like I had no idea. So I’ve found that most of my customers and other people around me know more about what my business is doing in the ecosystem than I do because I’m head down making sure that clients are satisfied and happy.

Scott Bursey (18:46)
⁓ I love that, Marcia. I just love that. And what is the best piece of advice you could give a real estate investor who is struggling to get their closing process under control?

Marcia Boyer (18:58)
I would say reevaluate what portions you need because a lot of times what they’re doing is they’re putting way too many parts in there and it could probably be simplified and streamlined a whole lot easier than what they’re trying to do. I feel like a lot of times they’re putting more on their plate than necessary when they’re doing that type of paperwork.

Scott Bursey (19:22)
Truly appreciate you dropping that wisdom for our pros. And you have dropped a lot of wisdom. You have given us a lot of great advice here today. But is there any additional words of wisdom that you can leave with our pros?

Marcia Boyer (19:36)
⁓ I would say make one, make a notary friend. Two, if you have the opportunity, make a real estate inspector friend because they’re going to have a lot of information before it hits the banks.

⁓ yeah, definitely that. and if possible, you know, always know a good real estate broker on the back end.

Scott Bursey (19:52)
And they absolutely

There we go. That’s the trifecta right there. Thank you so much for for that. And for those of our listeners that want to keep this conversation moving, stay in your lane or collaborate with you, Marcia. What’s the best way for them to to reach you?

Marcia Boyer (20:16)
Okay, so first of all, we’re on every social media platform. You can find us under Delaware Mobile Signings. But if you need to reach out to me directly, you can reach me at Marcia, which is M-A-R-C-I-A, @delawaremobilesignings.com If you’re looking for notary work, just put that notary in front of the @delawaremobilesignings.com And then you can also reach us at our phone number, which is 302-505-1459.

And for anybody watching this stream, QR code is sitting right here. And that’ll give you 100% our direct contact information and save it in your phone.

Scott Bursey (20:54)
Awesome. Awesome. And thank you for joining us today, Marcia. Absolutely.

Marcia Boyer (20:58)
Absolutely,

it’s been a absolute pleasure, Scott. It’s been utterly amazing.

Scott Bursey (21:03)
Yes, and to our listeners, we appreciate you. If you receive value from today’s episode, please subscribe. We’ll be fueling your tanks with the lineup of elite guests, just like Marcia Boyer, who are accelerating and setting the pace for the rest of the industry. Until next time, keep your standards high and your vision clear. We’ll see you in the next episode, everyone.