Close to Closing

By Justin Hunter

The home buying process is long and overloaded with anxiety. It seems as if the tasks you have to complete before you sign the final documents keep building up. The mortgage process alone is enough to make someone take a two-week vacation. But after dealing for months with lenders, agents and banks, you are almost ready to move into your new adobe.

Now it is closing time. Sounds easy enough. But if you are not prepared and go through the closing process as quick as possible just because you are tired and want the move to be completed, you could end up making a grave mistake; signing the final contract.

Sandy Gadow explains how a lack of preparation prior to closing can end up leaving you with a terribly costly headache, in her article, “How Do I Prepare for Closing?” which is posted on reiclub.com.

There are a few vital things you need to do within the couple of days before the actual closing day that will help ensure the closing goes through smoothly in a timely manner.

“A day or two before closing, you should review your final closing statement or HUD-1 Statement, whichever is used in your area of the country. You should go over all the calculations and be certain that you are given credit for all your deposits and any other credits due to you from the seller or for other items agreed upon between buyer and seller.”

This is also an important time to go over all the lender and title and escrow fees, and to make sure that the charges are exactly as promised. Thoroughly go over mathematical calculation because simple errors sometimes do occur. Those tricky decimal points, if misplaced, could potentially cost you thousands of dollars.

Carefully review the title insurance report to verify the exact legal description of the property and any inherited liens, which may have been discovered on the property. Make certain that only the items you agreed to are stipulated in contracts.

“Verify that the title or escrow agent has your correct vesting, or the way you want to take title to the property. This is important because to correct a vesting on a deed later on is time consuming and can be avoided if care is taken when escrow is closed.”

“Besides the paperwork which you must review and verify, you should re-inspect the property once again just prior to closing. Is everything the way you expect it to be? Have all the necessary repairs or other corrective work been done that were promised to you?” This is very important because you do not want any surprises when you finally move in. Unlike when you rent an apartment, if there are things that are moldy, broken or damaged in any other way, there is no maintenance crew to assist you. Also, all the additional expenses required to say, fix the leaky bath tub, are directly charged to you.

“The most important thing to remember is that before closing you want to be certain that all the conditions of the purchase contract have been met. You want to be sure that all directions given to the closing agent have been performed. Before signing your name to any closing documents, check and double check that everything is correct, interest rate, fees charged and condition of the property.”

Take your time going through everything during closing.

Since closing is the last step before moving in, many people become tired from the process or anxious of having a new home that they do not report minor falsities in the closing contract or maintenance issues with the property.

The “I’ll get to it later” mentality could cost a lot of money in the long run.

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