Fred asks:
I can not be at the closing to sell my home, due to distance. Is
this an acceptable plan? What risk? I am told I need to sign the
deed, early, in order to settle. I need to sell the house, but can I
miss the closing & do so with complete confidence that this will no
cause me problems later?
Having been licensed since Nixon was in office, escrow closings aren’t foreign to me. I have no clue how many closed escrows I have under my belt. I had a better chance of guessing how many jelly beans were in the huge glass jar at the drug store when I was a little kid.
I have yet to attend my first one. When we first started doing business in Idaho, the agents we hired for our team asked us how we were going to attend all the closings. After seeing our glazed-over RCA dog look for a few seconds, they figured we had no idea what they were talking about. Idaho is an escrow state.
Having spent my entire career in California which is also an escrow state, sitting around a big ‘closing’ table wrangling over details just hasn’t been part of my professional experience. As a young man entering the business as a blank slate, my mentors taught me the successful closing of an escrow was dependant upon all of the professionals involved doing the job for which they were hired. I’ve trained my successor, my son Josh, the same way. If those pros aren’t up to the task, you can find yourself isolated and adrift.
By the way Fred, signing the deed ‘early’ is SOP in an escrow state. The escrow will hold it and record it only when the entire contractual agreement has been satisfied. When signing, don’t forget it needs to be in the presence of a notary public who will attach her ‘okey dokey’ to the document.
If your home is being sold in what we Left Coasters call an ‘attorney state’, I can only tell you what I’ve done in those transactions. I’ll save that for later.
If it’s taking place in an escrow state, the professionals you choose to employ will make the difference. The title company, lender, escrow, and most importantly your agent must be aces. I’ll fall back again on my Idaho experience. Our escrow agent (they don’t call them officers there) is bullet proof. Our title company is one of the best we’ve ever had the pleasure of using. Their attention to detail, and ability to sniff out potential problems have been impressive. The transaction coordinator we hired for all our transactions there has become our undercover cop. She’s caught little oversights, usually missed by the ‘other’ agent in the transaction. Many of these would have been caught by either our agent, or the escrow itself, but she gets them early on which makes a huge difference come closing day.
The agents on our Idaho team double-check everything. All docs get handled correctly and on time. There’s nothing as exciting as getting a call the day before closing and being told a missing minor doc is going to delay everything. This is especially crucial if you agreed to some repairs during the inspection period. Getting the work done on time and right the first time is almost impossible unless you have someone on the ground there making it happen for you.
The few times I’ve had to deal with transactions in attorney states (usually exchanges), I spent much time up front locating the attorney I wanted to represent my client. It usually took a week or two to find the right one, but it was obviously well worth it. My idea of the right attorney was one who was incredibly detail oriented, experienced, and a specialist. My last requirement was that they were always looking for ways to make the deal work, instead of looking for ways to kill it, while insuring my/their client was as safe as a newborn baby. It seems for some attorneys, deal killing is a contact sport. 🙂
So Fred, your chances of experiencing a smooth and successful transaction with a happy ending is almost entirely dependant upon the professionals you’ve chosen. If you’ve chosen well, your closing experience should consist of a phone call from either your agent or the title/escrow company telling you “your home will be recording tomorrow morning.”
This wasn’t part of your question, but you might consider having them wire your net proceeds directly to your bank. You’ll get the money a lot sooner without fretting. And sooner is always better than later, right?
