- Before
- Owns the exception report — 168 open across 1,862 commercial loans — and reports aging to the credit committee. “I don’t need to know a document arrived. I need to know it’s right.”
- Now
- Sees every returned document read against the loan before it clears, sends the corrective chases herself and approves waivers up to High.
Nine returned documents, from Received to cleared — or back
Monday 12 October, 08:40, at Carrick Hill Bank’s commercial loan documentation desk. Nine documents came back since Friday. Here is what happens next, screen by screen, in the working solution.
- 01Monday 08:40
Every exception on one board, the riskiest on top
Teresa Okafor · Commercial loan documentation manager168 open across 1,862 commercial loans: Missing 88, Requested 71, Received 9, with 46 cleared and 7 waived in the last 30 days. Each card carries the borrower, the document, the loan number, the amount, a severity stripe, the banker’s initials and an aging bar that turns amber at 60 days and red at 90. Columns are sorted by risk, then age, so lien items rise to the top.
“9 documents came back since Friday. Nothing clears until it is read: signers, acknowledgments, names, recording, amounts.”
- 02One click
“Read today’s returns” — every page, every check
Returned-document checkerTeresa presses one button. The checker works down the Received column one document at a time, and the checks tick on each card as it reads. Seven have already cleared; now it is on the Brightwater Dental Partners hazard insurance certificate from Haskett Insurance Agency — one page, six checks. A document that passes every check slides into Cleared.
Received is a checkpoint, not a pile: the only way into Cleared is through the check.
- 03Run finished
Seven clear with their proof. Two come back.
Returned-document checkerNine documents, 79 pages. Seven cleared, each with the page that proves it — a UCC-1 filing acknowledgment under the exact debtor name, a flood policy at $500,000 per building, a guaranty signed and notarized. Two bounced to Requested with the reason written on the card: the Tallgrass recorded mortgage, “Unsigned by second guarantor”, and the Brightwater Dental hazard certificate, “Bank named as additional insured, not lender’s loss payee”.
“Today’s returns read · 9 documents, 79 pages · 7 cleared with their proving page · 2 back to Requested with the reason on the card”
- 04Page 14
The mortgage, with a note pinned to every check
Teresa Okafor · Commercial loan documentation managerTallgrass Cold Storage LLC, loan 4410-2287, $6,850,000. The mortgage came back recorded — Marrow County, instrument 2026-008812, 2 Oct 2026 10:42 — and six of eight checks pass: recording stamp, mortgagors against the title vesting, mortgagee, amount and maturity against the note, legal description against title commitment PTA-26-11873, Owen Strand’s signature. On page 14, Mitchell Ravel’s signature line is blank, and the notary acknowledgment names Owen Strand only.
- 05What it means
Half the warehouse is outside the mortgage — and the fix is drafted
Document chaserOwen Strand and Mitchell Ravel own 2250 Depot Road half each, as tenants in common. With one signature, Mitchell Ravel’s 50% — about $4,550,000 of the $9,100,000 appraisal — is not under the mortgage, and credit approval condition 4 requires both owners as mortgagors. The chaser has drafted the corrective chase to closing counsel Hal Pruitt, cc Kara Lindqvist and Colin Mercer: a ratification and joinder for Mitchell Ravel to sign before a notary, re-recorded with Marrow County.
“First message to this contact on this exception — it waits for you.”
- 06Sent · replied
Teresa sends it. The signing is booked.
Hal Pruitt · Closing counsel, Pruitt & Lowe LLPTeresa reads the draft and sends it. Hal Pruitt replies: “Thanks — that’s on us. Mitchell will sign a ratification and joinder here on Wednesday 14 October at 10:00 and we’ll re-record with Marrow County the same afternoon.” The chaser reads the reply and files it to the exception; the card now shows signing Wed 14 Oct, with the next look on Thursday 15 October.
- 0710:00 every business day
Every chase on one cadence
Document chaserAsk on day 0, remind on day 7, copy the banker on day 14, the manager on day 21. The outbox shows each thread on its cadence ribbon: Sumner & Vale’s assignment of rents waiting to escalate after three unanswered messages to Lakeshore Title, Delaney Brothers’ guaranty handed to the banker to call at 212 days, a UCC-3 continuation drafted for Northfork Dairy Farms before the 2 Feb 2027 lapse. Escalations, banker calls and first messages wait for a person.
412 messages this month by the document chaser · 0 to an unknown contact.
- 08Waiver requests
A waiver ask, with a recommendation — sometimes “decline”
Waiver drafterColin Mercer asks to waive the recorded copy of Cobalt Ridge Hospitality’s deed of trust, open 131 days. The lien and filing watcher has already found it in the Summit County index, recorded 21 Sep 2026 as instrument 2026-041177. The drafter recommends declining and ordering an $18 certified copy instead — and because it is a lien item, the decision goes to the chief credit officer, Alan Prescott.
Lien and recording items are not waived below the chief credit officer (policy 7.1.4).
- 09Every Monday, 07:00
The aging report the examiners will read
Aging reporterOpen exceptions by banker, days open and severity, in the form that goes to the credit committee and the examiners. Over twelve weeks the board fell from 263 open to 168, and from 74 over 90 days to 31. Critical items are 8% of the count and 41% of the exposure: $78.4M of loans with a lien or recording item open.
- 10Any loan
The closing checklist, matched to the file
Colin Mercer · Relationship manager, commercial real estateTallgrass’s 22-item closing checklist and approval conditions: what is in the file, what is an exception and where each one sits on the board. The assignment of leases and rents shows cleared today; the mortgage shows back to Requested, unsigned by the second guarantor; the final title policy is still missing — it issues after the mortgage is recorded.