When To Do A Closing

By Mike Chesser.

This office does real estate closings. Other law offices in this county and other closing agents also do closings, of course. Who is it who times the closing, and who decides how long it should take to get property ready to be closed?

The answer to that depends upon the property and the circumstances. Everyone at the table may have different motives about just when the closing should happen.

Let's assume there are those involved in the closing who are motivated to make sure it happens as quickly as possible. That may happen because they want their proceeds as quickly as possible, in which case the Seller will be pushing for a fast closing. It could happen because the commissions are important and are desired a quickly as possible, in which event the protagonist may be a Realtor. The purchaser may need to get into the house quickly, and the one pushing for a quick closing may be the Purchaser.

Whatever the source of the urge to be quick, the closing agent must urge you to treat it a little more like wine, and a little less like a microwave dinner. I have spoken in my articles about the value of a survey. A surveyor cannot be expected to do his job in a day or two. Inspections of the home, termite inspections, and other confirmations of warranty items should not be done quickly or casually. If there are mortgages or other obligations or liens on property, and generally there are, accurate, binding commitments from the people to whom money is owed are important. The closing agent must know that before closing. All of those matters should be presented at a closing table smoothly and easily, as if they are routinely done, as in fact they are. None is routinely done overnight, and none can be done well, predictably, and on a routine basis, by doing every closing like a mad scramble that starts a noon and must be finished by 5:00 P.M.

Please do not misunderstand my comments to mean that there are not sometimes reasons for urgency. That does happen, and when it happens, if we can treat it as an exception and not as the rule, we can deal with it.

If some of the behavior patterns I have seen relating to closings are indicative of personality, I would expect those folks to jump up on a table for knee surgery and give the surgeon 35 minutes to get his job done so they can get back on the tennis court. I do not want my surgery done that way. You don't want real estate closings to be done that way either.

There is a very good chance that everyone at the table will pay a price for any closing done badly. Ben Franklin may have had closings in mind when he predicted what mostly gets made by haste.

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