After all the hard work of finding the perfect house, making the offer, and having the offer accepted, you now come to the most challenge part of any buying and selling process – the closing. On this day, you will seal the deal on your new home, making the signature on the paperwork official. Unfortunately, if you were to ask 10 homebuyers the one part of the process they dreaded the most the majority would say the closing.
Instead of being sucked into the scary stories that so many first-time homebuyers hear, you should educate yourself so you know what to expect, as well as things you can do to make closing easier. For starters, if you are selling a home while buying another home, you will go through two closings, which can be a huge headache. Although having two closings on the same day can be difficult, it also gets everything over at once.
You will need to plan a minimum of an hour out of our schedule to close. For this reason, once you know the closing date, make sure your employer is notified of the time off. If the closing is being conducted toward the end of the year, you want to think about taxes. In this case, points and interest paid prior to the New Year are deductibles that can be used for the current’ year’s taxes.
Then, the closing will involve a lot of signing. Documents of all types need to be signed to include the Truth in Lending statement, itemized statement, which covers the amount of money being financed, monthly payment letter that breaks down the monthly payment of the new loan, the note, which is what shows you are borrowing the money, and the mortgage, which is the paper that puts the lien on the property.
In addition, a number of real estate documents have to be handled, which make the house officially yours. These include the Disclosure Statement, the Warranty Deed, Prorate Agreement, tax and utility receipts, report acknowledgements, name affidavit, title search, and more. After all the paperwork has been discussed, agreed upon, and signed, the deal is done. With this, you can finally breathe easy!