What happens at a closing?

Closing day is the most exciting day because that’s the day that you get your keys. Hopefully you have done your final walk-through with your Realtor and have made sure that there’s no issues with your property. If you have not please ask for one before you go to the closing table because it’s important that you make sure that the house or condo is in the shape that it was in when you put the offer on the house.

Make sure that you are bringing your photo ID, that is very important. You have to prove who you are. You will need your funds. Your lender will tell you how much, down to the penny, the amount that you will need. Usually they’ll give you a little bit over to cushion and sometimes you get a check back. They just want to make sure that there are enough funds, just in case something has to be changed at the closing table. But you want to make sure that you have enough funds. Anything over fifty thousand would have to be wired. So you cannot bring cash to the closing table unless it’s a very small amount. But usually they’ll have you wire that amount to the closer and that can be done 24 hours prior. Now a little word of caution when you are wiring fund,s you want to make sure that you are speaking directly to the person that you are comfortable with at your bank, to make sure that you are getting the funds wired to the proper place and that you’re not reading an email and wiring funds. It’s very very important.

After you give your ID your attorney will be there typically with your closing documents from your lender. So it will be a very thick, very very thick stack of paperwork that you will have to sign. You will have to sign and initial over and over and over again promising that you will pay the money. Your hand may get sore because there is a lot of papers.

Typically we can get through those papers, if your attorney is able to explain them and there’s not a lot of questions in between, we can get through those papers usually within a half-hour to an hour. But it just depends on how many questions are asked or how how lengthy your attorney is going through that information. Usually the attorney is going through that if for some reason you have signed your rights away from having an attorney then the closing agent will usually go through some of that paperwork with you or answer any questions that you may have but again they aren’t attorneys they’re closing agents and that’s where it can get a little bit difficult. So I do recommend that you do have an attorney at the closing table.

Typically the seller does not come to the closing table in a transaction. Now they can and sometimes I have sellers that do want to go, they want to have communication with the buyer. I would say on average sellers don’t show up to the closing table. They can pre sign their documents, so it would it’s more unlikely to see the seller at the closing table than to see them there.

After you sign all of your closing documents that’s when the lender is made aware that all of the documents are signed. They review to make sure that nothing is missing and they then give the OK to go ahead and process the funds. Once they do that the closing agent will then cut the money to the lender and to all parties involved; the attorneys, the Realtors. After that is all done we get the keys and that is super exciting!