Real Estate Closings and Delays

Timing is Everything: Part 2

Insurance is easy to overlook, but the lack of it can hold up a closing for days. Depending on your relationship with your insurance agents, you may be able to get insurance within an hour or two. However, some agents need a couple of days to view the property, and since programs change so regularly and because agents are not always available at a moments notice, you should order your insurance a week in advance of the closing. Insurance agents will typically do all the work over the phone, but some may request the buyer or their agent to fill out a property description form. If a buyer has never purchased insurance from an agent, they will need to go through an application process. This can take a few days, so start even earlier if your buyer has not already worked with the insurance agent.

The Seller is easy to forget about it until a day or two before closing. We have set many closing dates only to call the seller a day in advance and find out that they are on vacation and will not be back for a week. A target date is usually set for closing on the contract, but often times that date gets moved up or moved back. Make sure to keep the seller in the loop when making changes.

The Buyer is the last piece of the puzzle. Similar to the seller, make sure to not leave them out of the loop as you are moving around the closing date to accommodate the lender or the title attorney. Since the buyer is the one who is actually purchasing the property, it’s a good idea to make sure that they know well in advance of the closing date and time and anything that will be required of them.

One of the most common ways to delay a closing is by working with parties that have little to no experience working with BD. Your sales manager will supply you with an Approved Vendor’s List that will list the preferred lenders, title attorneys and insurance agents to work with in your area. By only using vendors on the approved list you will not have to worry about vendors who make promises that they cannot keep or who do not take care of business in a timely fashion and can make you and BD look unprofessional.