Tips to Avoid These Costly Mistakes Prior to Closing

You have signed to purchase a home, you have done your home inspection, well inspection, termite inspection, gotten a copy of the covenants for the neighborhood, charges for the HOA, you have made it through your loans underwriting and think you are home free, and then just prior to closing you find out you made a few costly mistakes…
 Costly Mistakes Prior to Closing
As a seasoned real estate agent, I see miscommunication or lack of communication all the time in regard to real estate transactions.  I want to save you, the buyer, much agony, and share these tips to avoid costly mistakes prior to closing.
The list below may seem like “little things” but when you are in the middle of a real estate purchase, it can amount to major problems.  Real Estate closings are like dominoes and if one chip falls wrong, there is a snowball effect.

Tips to Avoid These Costly Mistakes Prior to Closing

  1. Tell your agent the details of your travel arrangements if you do not live in the area in which you are purchasing a home.  Believe me, they do not want to be your travel agent, but making certain the logistics are in order for you to sign AND be present for 24 hours after signing of documents is paramount.  Do not assume you can fly in to sign and fly out immediately.  Give yourself and your bank time. There is a process called “close of escrow” or funding which is behind the scenes that most buyers do not witness.  Until the funds are sent to pay for the home you are purchasing, you do not own it.  Most buyers do not realize that the banks and mortgage companies will not send those funds until they “approve” all the documents you just signed and how you signed them.  One closing attorney mentioned that she felt like she went to law school and now she grades penmanship, but the banks are nervous and finicky.  They want you to sign a certain way and its often different from bank to bank.  Which brings up the next point.
  2. SIGN AS THE BANK INDICATES on all closing documents or forms.  Do not put in an extra initial if they do not have it on your loan docs or do put in the middle name even if you don’t normally use it if its on the loan docs to sign.  Sign exactly like they indicate on the docs unless of course, they have the name completely wrong. Then call, call, call!
  3. Be consistent with your name.  I see it over and over.  The way buyers fill out the loan application is different from what is on their driver’s license and that is different from what they put on the purchase contract.  Be consistent from the start.  If you use middle initial, use it consistently throughout and have your real estate agent put that on the contract.
  4. Get any powers of attorney APPROVED BY BOTH YOUR LENDER and the CLOSING ATTORNEY -TITLE COMPANY, and I do not just mean the form.  I mean get the final signed Power of Attorney after it is signed and notarized approved by both entities.  The notary may not have executed the form correctly or you may have signed differently than typed. Send in a signed copy to your lender, closing/title company and your realtor and let them all take look at it. Be certain the original is at the closing!  IF not, you cannot close.  That Power of Attorney is officially recorded at the courthouse with your deed.
  5. When in doubt on anything, ask your loan officer, realtor and/or closing or title company.  Communicate and address the matters that can arise BEFORE you get to the closing table.  It can make all the difference.  Communicate, communicate, communicate!
  6. Keep your cool. If you see inconsistencies or mistakes, make the person aware and they will be corrected.  Lots of times agents are trying to “keep you in the know” and you will see DRAFTS of documents including contracts, HUD settlement statements, etc.  They can be changed, corrected, etc.  The key is to keep your cool and address it ahead of time by simply saying to your agent, can you take a look at this, it does not look correct or I do not understand it?
Remember, it will be okay and we will get you to the goal line, but I tell people every day… strap on your seat belt because it might get bumpy along the way but I am committed to getting you there!

Melanie Kramer Keller Williams Realty Coastal Area Partners
912-459-5001 Office
912-658-1390 Cell Direct Melanie Kramer Coastal Georgia Realtor