12 STEPS TO THE CLOSING TABLE AND THE BIG CHECK KATHY KENNEBROOK
Some of them don’t know how to prepare one, so they need the help of the title company or their real estate
attorney for this. This is also the time you might be able to negotiate a discount with them. This works
especially well if it was a seller held mortgage. We have gotten private lenders and sellers to negotiate
discounts on loans on several occasions which just made our paycheck bigger.
8. Has the buyer’s loan been approved? If not find out what the problem is and how to fix it if it can be fixed. If
the loan has been approved find out what the proposed closing date is going to be. Has your buyer ordered
insurance yet? You need to check this out and it needs to be done as soon as possible. This is another area
where you could have a glitch. Sometimes the age of the property or the location of the property becomes an
issue. For example, here in Florida where I live, if there is a hurricane brewing, we end up in a “box” which is a
period of time where you can’t buy insurance until a hurricane passes. This can hold up a closing for several
days unless the insurance is already in place. A buyer must purchase a homeowners policy for one year and it
must prepaid at closing.
9. If you are selling a condo or a home with a home owners association, make sure the lender and the buyers
have a copy of the home owner association rules and documents and that the buyers have set up their
appointment for their meeting with the condo association or home owners association. If they are not
approved by the condo association or homeowners association, the rest of the closing is a mute point. You
need to make sure your buyer’s get through this process successfully.
10. So now we have a set closing date. Make sure you contact the closing agent to make sure you get a copy
of the HUD or closing statement before the closing takes place and before you arrive at a closing. Very
recently we had a closing that didn’t take place because once we got the HUD all the figures including the
asking price and seller assisted closing costs had all been changed.