Closing (Who Knows What?)
Okay, so we’re closing on a coop soon. Like, really soon. Aiming for before Christmas. Suddenly I’m looking at all these documents and getting a little dizzy. Our lawyer came highly recommended but she’s impossible to get ahold of and hasn’t been much help. I’m done asking the realtor questions — he has no freaking…
Okay, so we’re closing on a coop soon. Like, really soon. Aiming for before Christmas. Suddenly I’m looking at all these documents and getting a little dizzy.
Our lawyer came highly recommended but she’s impossible to get ahold of and hasn’t been much help. I’m done asking the realtor questions — he has no freaking clue.
So we’re in this situation. We’ve got a deposit in escrow. We’ve got money in the bank. We’ve got stacks and stacks of papers.
But … who is supposed to know what happens next? Does someone (who?!?) give us a list of cashiers checks that we’re supposed to bring to the closing? Should we just withdraw our life savings in small unmarked bills? Are we just supposed to know that, magically?
Seriously: we’re entering terra icognita here. Anyone want to walk me through the next few steps?
Yeah, get your money to a place where you can access it.
If you really do want to close this year, you may need to stay on top of your attorney with phone calls so that they stay in touch with everyone else to make sure stuff gets done (if possible) so the closing will get scheduled. Sometimes when all the various parties involved are busy, they don’t necessarily pick something up unless someone, meaning your lawyer, calls them.
If your attorney is really busy, and has staff, talk to their staff. Many have paralegals who do most of the work before closing, getting everything done so you can close, and they usually are more in touch with all the details before closing than the attorney is, and more accessible by phone, as they aren’t spending their days in closings like your attorney is.
With so many people always trying to close before year end, it can be hard to get in there on the calendar. I ended up closing in early January, even though I was ready to go by early December (mortgage approved and ready, coop board approved me.) I was told by my attorney that there were other people who really needed to close in December for tax purposes (sellers, no doubt, trying to manage which year their sale income was received for capital gains tax purposes). I don’t know if all these people were clients of my attorney, of the sellers’ attorney (my sellers didn’t have enough appreciation to owe capital gains) – but January it was.
From my (rather limited) experience, I’d say if you don’t have a firm closing date, time, and place scheduled in the next two days or so, you aren’t closing before Christmas, and possibly not even this month. If you don’t care about closing this year, then sit tight, and you’ll have a less stressful end of year, and you’ll certainly close in January. And even if you care about closing this year, there may be nothing you can do about it – once everything is approved, getting that date and time scheduled is key. And you can’t get all the attorneys representing the various parties (you, the sellers, the coop, your mortgage bank, and somebody from the seller’s mortgage bank, who needs to be there to make sure the sellers’ mortgage, if any, is paid off) to make space on their calendars if the space just isn’t there, all at the same time for all of them.
Also, closing costs for coops (those under $1 million anyway) are much cheaper than for houses/condos – there won’t be any big surprises, and any amounts there are will be small, a couple hundred at most. You already know roughly how much you’ll need to pay the sellers – the difference between your deposit and the mortgage amount. Your attorney can’t give you the exact amount of this payment much before the closing, because she has to get it from your mortgage bank’s attorney. The bank will have certain deductions already from the total mortgage amount for various purposes of theirs (like pre-paid interest). This might surprise you, but your lawyer should go over all that with you at the closing, so you can see how it all adds up, after giving you just the bare numbers for your bank checks to bring a day or two before. It can be a little confusing – but make sure your lawyer explains it to you until you get it – as the closing is the time to make sure it all adds up. It isn’t likely there will be any goofs, but you’ll want to understand it all then and there for your own peace of mind.
If you google, you can find pretty detailed lists of coop closing costs online, posted on sites of large brokers and various blogs. This will give you an idea of what to expect until you get exact numbers from your attorney.
Bring your checkbook (and your driver’s license.) You’ll pay some fees directly with personal checks, and you’ll also pay a pro-rated share of the current month’s maintenance to the sellers (if they’ve paid it already to the coop, which they should have).
Oh, and you won’t need to “tip” the title company – you aren’t buying real estate here, but shares in a corporation – the title to the building is held by the coop corporation, or its mortgage bank – you aren’t buying it. And you won’t have to do anything with utility bills unless your coop has its own individual furnace – some do, but most are older buildings and don’t have individual heat.
And I agree with the above poster that you should be able to talk to your lawyer, or their staff, on how scheduling is going, so you can plan for things (like your move.) And to get your questions answered, even if it is only what I was told, that they wouldn’t have exact figures for me until a day or two before the closing. They were, at least, accessible by phone.
I heart you alls.
This makes perfect sense. I think some of my concern is that our money is all in an online account. Methinks we need to move it now to an account at a bank with tellers so we can walk up to a teller to get our cashier’s checks.
PS. DIBS, these stacks … I think they’re our copies of our mortgage application, contract and board application. But somewhere in there is our GFE.
-I wouldn’t worry about that too much, transfer your funds into a checking account a week or two before closing…after all it takes time for the funds to fully transfer. When you make a bank certified check, the teller will need to see that you have the funds available in your checking.
Sounds like you have a wack lawyer. When I bought my place, my lawyer was great with answering questions, even the silly ones that were mostly a product of being green and anxious about the process.
Yes, you do need to move your money so it is accessible on short notice.
Once the bank has finished its inspection, and your mortgage broker/lender has the final utility bill info, the lawyers will call each other and schedule the closing.
THEN your lawyer will call you with precise instructions.
If it’s taking forever to get a closing date, sometimes the real estate agent can make calls to try to prod the parties into action.
But not too much happens before Christmas or New Year’s.
Your lawyer should give you a breakdown of amounts and payees you need in bank check(s) but won’t have the exact amount(s) until a day or 2 before closing. You’ll also need to bring your checkbook. No, don’t withdraw your life savings in cash but consolidate it in a place where you can conveniently draw on it and if you’ve got a choice you might put it in an account where it’s a small charge for bank checks and/or there’s a convenient branch to stop at on the way to closing.
If you’re closing soon, you should have your good faith estimate, and between that and your purchase contract you can do the approximate math.
purchase price – deposit/escrow = amount due to seller
That amt + borrower paid closing costs – cash to borrower (from GFE)=~ amount you’ll be shelling out at closing
You’ll also write some misc checks (“tip” to title company closer & your attorney’s fee)
I heart you alls.
This makes perfect sense. I think some of my concern is that our money is all in an online account. Methinks we need to move it now to an account at a bank with tellers so we can walk up to a teller to get our cashier’s checks.
PS. DIBS, these stacks … I think they’re our copies of our mortgage application, contract and board application. But somewhere in there is our GFE.
The lawyer should be able to tell you what, if any, outstanding issues there are. Likely none and just pre-holiday scheduling annoyances. Sometimes they’re VERY hard to get a hold of but they will tell you exactly what to bring a few days in advance. Specific dollar amounts, formats and such.
Note, I remember the few days before my house closing. Not the first time I’ve done this and I was still a bit of a mess. One key piece of advice I got was ‘relax. Everyone goes through the same process.” I repeated this several times a day – it helped . . . a bit 😉
Will be OK.
You probably wont get the closing #’s until a day or so before closing.
At the closting before you will sign all the documents, which is a BUNCH! your lawyer will advise you every paper in detail. You are signing a dead transfer, tax transfer etc.
Signing an agreement with old owner; with the bank (if there is) that they might forclousre the house if you are not making the payments as per the contract.
I hope this was a help, if you need more details
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Thank u