You’ve negotiated the price at which you’re going to buy or sell your house, inspections have been done and the closing is moving forward. Now what happens? Sometimes buyers and sellers don’t always know what is happening with the sale leading up to the closing date. As Ramsey Weeks Closing Agent, the core portion of my responsibilities begin when your offer is through the negotiation phase, has been accepted and both parties have signed off on everything. The agent will then give me the offer and I start working on the paper work for the closing process. There are many more people involved with the sale/purchase of your home other than you and your agent, which work behind the scenes. These are the people I work with to coordinate a successful closing. These people include the lenders, the abstractors, home inspectors, any contractors or other inspectors, the appraiser, the attorneys, the seller’s mortgage holder, the people who prepare the closing statements, and finally the closer. Depending on the type of sale there could be any combination of these people who will be working hard to help you have a successful closing.
As the Ramsey Weeks Closing agent I will be working with most of the people mentioned above, to guide your sale to the closing date. The paperwork portion of the closing process generally looks like this: The abstract will need to be continued, a title opinion will need to be ordered and completed by an attorney, a deed package will need to be prepared by an attorney, the seller’s mortgage payoff must be obtained, and invoices for all work must be submitted to the closer. The closer works with the real estate agents and in-house closers, like myself, to finalize all these numbers for buyers and sellers, and finally they and/or the lender handle the closing the day of! The lender is also doing a lot of behind the scenes work as well, sending statements and information to underwriting, ordering the appraisal, etc. Depending on whether we are representing the buyers or sellers, or both, the steps I will need to take can differ. For example: if Ramsey Weeks was representing only the buyers, it would not be my responsibility to obtain a mortgage payoff for the sellers.
Since I work with a variety of different people for each transaction it is very important to keep everything organized and moving at good pace. It is important for me to have as much information as possible regarding the sale when I first receive the offer. If you want to make sure your closing process goes smoothly and without any hiccups here are some tips.
- Keep your agent or me informed – about anything and everything involving the sale.
- Pick an attorney when you sign the purchase agreement (you will need them for either the Title Opinion if you are purchasing a home or for the Deed if you are selling a home).
- Please provide the info needed for me to obtain your mortgage payoff either when listing the property or when signing the purchase agreement.
- Please know where your abstract is located and bring it to Ramsey Weeks promptly after the purchase agreement has been signed.
- Ask questions! If there is any part of the process you are not sure of please ask so we can help you!