It’s finally your closing day, and the home is almost yours!
You have crossed all your “T”s and dotted all your “I”s. You’ve completed the final property walk-through. You’ve set up your homeowners insurance and property utilities. You’ve reviewed the final numbers with your lender and myself. You’ve wired your funds from your bank to the closing attorney’s account, which is a much safer way to bring the money to closing than by certified check or money order (and many closing attorneys are no longer accepting funds by any manner other than wiring).
Prepare yourself to sign a lot of documents: loan and lender documents, disclosures, and most importantly, the deed to the property which will be recorded at the county courthouse making you the official owner of record. The closing attorney will walk you through all of the documents and explain each one to you.
Once all of the documents have been signed by the seller and you, there will be a brief waiting period, as the closing attorney transmits the signed documents to your lender and waits for final approval and for the lender’s funds to be wired in. This is the perfect time for you to ask the seller any last-minute questions you have about the property, as you may not come in contact with them again, especially if they are moving out of state.
The closing attorney will give us word as soon as she has received final approval from the lender – at that point, the home is yours! The attorney will also give you a copy of everything you have signed to keep for your records. (I recommend scanning everything in and saving them as electronic documents in case anything happens to the hard copies.)
The Real Estate Savvy by Myra Spano 