By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail. – Benjamin Franklin
Planning to get to the closing table for your real estate closing, you can help! Many closings go awry before anyone knows it due to the failure to plan and account for potential delays. Let’s look at how to plan so that you can get to the closing table and get there on time!
Gathering Documentation
Once a title search is completed and reviewed by the title company, the process really starts in gathering documentation needed. Each party should be contacted by the title company in order to gather and confirm all details for a closing.
The seller should be able to provide the following documentation; a loan statement that includes a loan number and customer care number so that the title company can obtain a payoff for the closing. All loans will need to be paid off, even HELOCS as they will be a lien on the property as well.
If seller is an entity (corporation or limited liability) they will need to provide their entity docs showing they are in existence and active and who has the authority to sign at closing.
If any liens arise then seller will need to confirm that they in fact are theirs if so payoffs will need to be obtained again.
If the sellers do not provide details needed or are slow in acting to provide details, this can delay the closing.
If buyers are entities the same information applies where they will need to provide details for those entities. If a buyer has signed a contract as an entity and has not created the entity yet, that will certainly cause a delay in closing.
Either buyer or seller maybe also be closing in a trust, these trust documents will need to be reviewed as well. Especially if a party to the trust has passed away.
As a real estate agent, these are some helpful tips to gather at a listing, or signing of a contract so you can provide to the title company. Pulling that last deed of record or even the chain of deeds will be helpful in you asking the right questions to help your seller be prepared as well.
As sellers and buyers, important for you to gather documents as needed and communicate with your title company, the longer it takes for the communication to start the longer it will take to get to the closing table. Don’t let that be you!
Let Title Junction get you to the closing table on time!
Title Junction is a full service real estate title company serving the area of Fort Myers, Cape Coral and the entire state of Florida since 2005. The company handles a number of real estate title services for both commercial and residential properties.
Have questions? Give us a call at 239.415.6574.
In case you missed it, check out our last Title Junction post: The Final Walk-Through – What You Should Be Looking For