Closing remotely, from abroad

[Leonid Lednev]

Does anyone have recent experience closing remotely.  I'm a US citizen but currently living in Thailand, working on my first property, have agreed on price with the seller and was excited to move on to next steps.  When I spoke to the mortgage broker he told me that the way it works is that all the closing docs are issued electronically on closing date, then the lender and the title company expect them back, signed and notarized within the same business day.  My plan was to sign and get the docs notarized at the US Embassy here but the issue is I'm in a time zone 12 hours ahead so it won't be possible to do that the same day I receive them.  Does anyone have experience with this and any suggestions?  2 options I have read about so far are

1.  Assign a power of attorney to sign/notarize on closing day

2.  I have ready that it may be possible to get the docs and pre-sign them in advance but my mortgage broker says it's not possible, though I don't think he has ever done a remote closing before and may not know.

We did check already and it's fine that I can't be at closing physically, its just this signature/notary same day issue.  This is in NJ btw.

Any suggestions much appreciated!