What To Look Out For On Closing Day When Selling Your House
Your real goal whenever you're selling your house is to get to the closing table on closing day. Even though locating a buyer is the first goal, closing the sale is the final goal, the end of the game. That's the day you pay off your mortgage and receive your proceeds check. And that's the day you've been waiting for. That's the big win!
It's easy to forget about closing day in the midst of packing up to move and juggling so many other details. Probably the most critical thing you should do when you're selling your house and moving towards closing day is to make time to read and understand your complete settlement statement, called a HUD-1 form, which is basically an accounting of all the money coming into and going out of your sale transaction. You are supposed to receive it at least one full day prior to closing.
Your HUD-1 form may be prepared by a title company, an attorney or your real estate broker's closing department. As k your agent who will be preparing the HUD-1 form if you're using an agent, and remember to ask the title company closing your transaction if you're selling by owner.
The important point here is that you understand the necessity of seeing that form ahead of closing day. You may need to call your agent or your title company a few days ahead of closing to make sure it's prepared and sent out to you in a timely manner. I cannot stress this too much - the importance of being proactive on your own behalf is absolutely crucial to avoiding financial mistakes at closing when you sell a house.
However, simply reviewing your closing statement and actually understanding it are two different things, so that's why you need to schedule time to absorb the information. And you may need additional time to ask your agent or title company representative to clarify it for you as well. Nearly every HUD-1 form I've ever seen we for the first time contained errors. I am not exaggerating, and it's not that the form preparers are incompetent, it's that the numbers change on a daily basis.
They are computing property taxes, property insurance and mortgage and escrow balances that all change daily. When you request your HUD-1 form in advance you are actually helping move the process along, making it much more likely that things will go smoothly on closing day. Thinking ahead to a smooth closing day is really an excellent strategy when you're selling your house.
It's easy to forget about closing day in the midst of packing up to move and juggling so many other details. Probably the most critical thing you should do when you're selling your house and moving towards closing day is to make time to read and understand your complete settlement statement, called a HUD-1 form, which is basically an accounting of all the money coming into and going out of your sale transaction. You are supposed to receive it at least one full day prior to closing.
Your HUD-1 form may be prepared by a title company, an attorney or your real estate broker's closing department. As k your agent who will be preparing the HUD-1 form if you're using an agent, and remember to ask the title company closing your transaction if you're selling by owner.
The important point here is that you understand the necessity of seeing that form ahead of closing day. You may need to call your agent or your title company a few days ahead of closing to make sure it's prepared and sent out to you in a timely manner. I cannot stress this too much - the importance of being proactive on your own behalf is absolutely crucial to avoiding financial mistakes at closing when you sell a house.
However, simply reviewing your closing statement and actually understanding it are two different things, so that's why you need to schedule time to absorb the information. And you may need additional time to ask your agent or title company representative to clarify it for you as well. Nearly every HUD-1 form I've ever seen we for the first time contained errors. I am not exaggerating, and it's not that the form preparers are incompetent, it's that the numbers change on a daily basis.
They are computing property taxes, property insurance and mortgage and escrow balances that all change daily. When you request your HUD-1 form in advance you are actually helping move the process along, making it much more likely that things will go smoothly on closing day. Thinking ahead to a smooth closing day is really an excellent strategy when you're selling your house.