Home Closing Checklist
You are buying or selling a home. An offer has been made and a closing date has been scheduled. You are on your way, but until you reach the finish line there is lots of work to do for both sides. Lots of paper signing is required before closing and it gets even worse at closing. The overall process of buying and selling a house is one of the more stressful events in our life’s – not too far behind death, divorce, and having a baby.
The following checklist will help the buyer and the seller to get everything in place for closing. This kind of checklist will help both sides to turn this stressful event into a more positive experience.
Home Buyer Closing Checklist
- Schedule final walk-through of the property
- Get a cashier’s check for the amount of money you need to bring for closing
- Initiate wire transfer if you do not want to use a cashier’s check
- Schedule start of critical services like electricity, water, and gas
- Schedule start of garbage removal
- 7-10 days before closing go to www.usps.com and put in a mail forwarding request to the new (USPS needs 7 days to process the request)
- Be in touch daily with your real estate agent and mortgage broker the last 5-6 business before closing and verify that everything is still on track
- Make sure to carry a proper form of identification (driver’s license, passport, etc.)
- Map the location of the office location where the closing will be and make sure you can get there in time (you’ll be surprised how many people show up late because they did not do their duediligence
Home Seller Closing Checklist
- Have you removed everything from the house (unless you are moving out after closing)
- Is the property in good condition? You cannot leave a dump behind. So, make sure to have all holes in the walls closed (think nails, etc.).
- Is the property clean?
- Does the title company have your wire information to wire any proceeds after paying of a mortgage?
- If you are moving out after closing, do you have enough help to make it out on time (see contract for when the property needs to handed over)?
- Collect all the keys to the house and the mailbox so that you can hand them over to the buyer
- Bring garage door openers to closing or make sure to leave them in the house
- Leave manuals and instructions for appliances or custom features of your home or offer a “training session” to the buyer if things are heavily complicated
- Inform neighbors about your new phone number and address
- Double check all the paperwork submitted to your real estate agent and the title company and be in touch with your realtor daily to make sure things are on track
Both, seller and buyer should be in recurring contact with their respective real estate agents until all the questions are asked and answered, until all the paperwork is done and final numbers for closing have been provided by the title company. Keep in mind that this kind of transaction is not about small change, but major monies so to speak. The better you are prepared, the better your closing experience will be when buying or selling a house.
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