https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfVANc3apjw

I. Introduction

• Closing day is often anticlimactic despite the anticipation and excitement leading up to it.
• The buildup to closing day involves various stages in the home-buying process.
• Closing day is similar to achieving a goal in life; it may not be as exhilarating as expected.

II. Getting the Keys

• The timing of receiving the keys depends on whether it's an in-person or mail-away signing.
• Sign early in the day for a better chance of receiving keys on the same day.
• Recommended signing time is between 10:30 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. to accommodate potential lender delays.

III. Money for Closing

• Determining the exact amount to bring to closing can be challenging.
• The final, precise amount is often not known until the day of closing.
• Three days before signing, you'll receive the "final CD," but it's not truly final.
• The "final final CD" is when the title company or attorney balances the numbers, providing the actual amount.

IV. Wire Instructions and Fraud Prevention

• Never accept wire instructions from anyone other than the escrow officer, attorney, or title company.
• Verify wire instructions by calling the company directly from a trusted source.
• Be cautious of wire fraud attempts in the real estate transaction process.

V. Signing the Documents

• Signing the loan documents can take varying amounts of time, depending on your preferences.
• Maintain a consistent signature throughout the document.
• Write down the date to avoid errors.
• Ensure your identification, such as a driver's license or passport, is not expired.
• When signing with a notary, it may take additional time to fund the loan.

VI. Celebrate Your Achievement

• Capture the moment with photos of the signing.
• Be proud of your accomplishment as a homeowner.
• Understand that closing day marks the transition to homeownership, and there might not be an extravagant celebration.

VII. Post-Closing

• Depending on your contract, you may not immediately move into your new home if the seller needs additional time to vacate.
• After signing, you officially become a homeowner, and you can look forward to settling into your new property.

Remember, closing day is a significant milestone in your journey to becoming a homeowner, and it's essential to embrace the moment, even if it may not live up to the grand expectations. If you have any questions or concerns during the closing process, don't hesitate to reach out to your lender for guidance and support.

Today, we're going to be talking about what to expect on closing day. There's so much misinformation about this, and I'm going to be really honest: closing day is anti-climactic. It's true, it's true. And look, here's why. Okay, there's so much that goes into buying a house, right? You've got the shopping, the anticipation – will they accept my offer, will they not accept my offer? Then, you've got, depending on what type of escrow you're in, 15 days, 30 days, sometimes 45 days. I don't like those 45-day closes, but look, you've got these time periods where you're getting loan documents, you're looking at inspections, you're going through all of this work, so your mind hasn't really had time to adjust. And so, what a lot of people are expecting is, on closing day, they're expecting this big, "Yay!" Right? Right?

It's kind of like goal setting in life. Okay, you know, a lot of times you'll set a goal, and then you get to that goal, and you're excited, but it's not as exciting as you thought. Okay, and I know that sounds terrible. I know that sounds terrible, guys. So, let's prepare you for what to expect. I just wanted to say that at first because, over the years, I've been trying to think of like, how can I, like, should I give them a certificate, what can I do to make this exciting? But I think it's – there's so much buildup to this moment, it will never live up to your expectations. Like, maybe if there was like a marching band and a confetti canyon, and you got like a big ornamental key. Oh, maybe that's what I need to do. I don't know, drop it in the comments, guys. Should I be sending people big ornamental keys when they buy their first house? I kind of like it. I don't know, tell me what you think, tell me what you think.

So, look, it can be very hard to live up to, but let's get past that, okay? Number one, depending on what state you're in, you may get the keys the same day you sign. It's going to depend. So, there's two different types of signings: there's a mail-away, meaning you're not in the location of the title company, escrow company, or lawyer, and then there's in-person. If you're in-person, in location, and you're in a state where we table fund, meaning that we fund the minute you sign those documents, you will get keys the same day.

Now, top tip, if you're trying to get keys the same day you sign, sign early. Sign early. If you sign at 5:00 at night, you're not likely getting keys then because they can't send it back to the funder to approve. Okay, so tip number one: sign early in the morning. That's right. Um, you know, not the first signing, you don't want to be that 9:00 a.m. I would say like 10-11. That way, if the lender you're working with, like, 'cause sometimes loan docs don't get to title till the day you sign, it can be very last minute. So, you don't want to be that first appointment, but you definitely don't want to be the last. So, if I was setting my signing, I would probably want to be between like 10:30 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. That's a really safe spot, um, for most lenders.

Now, if you are concerned, then do it before noon for sure. Okay, now, how much money do you bring to closing? Okay, this is actually the part of the entire loan process and home buying process I dislike the most, and I'm going to tell you why. As a buyer, you want to know how much you're going to be bringing into closing as soon as possible. Like, day one of in contract, people are always asking me, "How much do I have to bring into closing?" And I'm always saying, "This is an estimate until we're closer, this is an estimate until we're closer." And that is incredibly frustrating, but that's the truth. Okay, there is not a lender in America that can tell you to the penny how much you're going to be bringing into closing in the first few weeks of the transaction. It's not realistic. It's that simple.

And there's a variety of factors, you know. The first is sometimes your closing date will change. Your contract may be to close on November 15th, but maybe your lender finishes up early, and the sellers are like, "Yeah, we want to move," and you're like, "I want to move in." So now you're closing on the 10th. That's going to change your prepaid interest, it's going to change tax and insurance prorations, it's going to affect some of the closing costs.

So, the important thing for you to know is that often, you do not have that final, true number until the day of. I know, generally, the day before, okay? And I'm going to tell you why. So, at least 3 days before you sign loan documents, you're going to get what's known as the final CD. Here's the funny thing about the final CD: it's not the final CD. It's not. That's the LOL about it all. It's the final CD that the lender gives you without being BFFs with title and without them balancing to the CD, mhm.

So, you get the final CD from the lender, you're like, "Okay, this is to the penny, right?" No, no, it's not, until you get the final final CD is what I always call it, which is the title company or the attorney or escrow balancing with the loan company. Okay, that is when you get that final number. So, it is not uncommon to not get that number till the night before, sometimes the day of if you're in a rush situation. So, I understand that can be incredibly frustrating, and sometimes what we'll do is, you know, when we send out the lender final CD, if people are really nervous about it, and they're like, "Well, we really want to wire money now to escrow or attorney," and look, guys, if you're a lender in a specific state, this is probably confusing to you, but I'm in 48 states, so in some states, it's going to be attorneys, and others, it's going to be title or escrow, it's going to depend on the state. So, that's why I keep saying it that way.

Um, anyways, so you'll want to wire the money because you're like, "Well, I just want to sign, I don't want any stress." If you don't have that final number, my advice is always going to be to wire a good chunk more, like $1,000 more. Okay, you really want to wait until you are getting that call with the final final number. Because what can be really frustrating is, let's say the lender sends you the CD that you have to sign 3 days before you sign your final loan docs, and it says $22,800. You're like, "Cool, I'm going to send that to escrow, right? Or title or attorneys." Great, you send that. Well, guess what, when the docs get to title, title looks at it, and they go, "Hey, like, actually the tax prorations are a little off, actually we have to collect for this because the seller covered this," and then all of a sudden, it's $24,000, mhm. And you're like, "Oh, I can just write a check for the difference." Most companies, if you write a check, it's not going to be instant, like it would have to be 7even days, depending on the amount, they won't even take personal checks, you'd have to go get a cashier's check. A lot of people have banks or credit unions that don't have branch locations, so they can't even get a cashier's check, you know.

Wiring money takes time, and it costs money. So, I would strongly advise you wait until you get that final final number, okay? And I've thought about this a lot over the years because this is the one piece of the PB puzzle, excuse me, I'm always talking about the zero-stress mortgage, and you know, I fully underwrite everything upfront, I've got everything dialed in. The one piece the lender can't control is this piece, mhm. I've had it, guys. You know, in some states, I can send loan docs like a couple of days before signing, and I'll send them like a solid week before the buyer is supposed to sign. And we will be saying to them, "Hey, can you please balance? Can you please balance? We really want to get the numbers to the client. Like, you have the loan docs, there's no reason you can't balance right now. You know the date, you have it set up, why can't we get these numbers?" And they'll literally be like, "Oh, it's not time for that one yet. We have other ones in front of it. We'll do this one when we're closer."

So, even as a lender, as much as we push, sometimes a lot of times, the other side's just like, "Hey, look, we're not going to do this days earlier just because you know, we have a line, we have a way we do stuff." So, really expect that last minute with the money to be a bit chaotic. I hate to say it, guys. I hope there's a better solution at some point, but if you expect this, you're better prepared for it. So, that final number from the lender is going to be pretty darn close; however, I would not wire money based off of that. I would wait until the loan docs are out and the funder and the company have gone back and forth to make everything perfect. That's when you get that final number, that's when you should wire the money or bring the cashier's check, okay?

Okay, sorry, that's the part that I'm always like, "uh," like it's so frustrating from a customer service aspect because I would love to give you guys numbers as quickly as possible. You would be a lot happier, right? I wouldn't get emails every single day saying, "Hey, do you have the final numbers?" And it's like, no, we don't yet, here's why. So, let's move past that, okay?

Now, what? Okay, so you got the number of the final amount, you wired it, or you've got the cashier check, you're in the office, the loan doc package gets put in front of you, what to expect, okay? So, if you're in office, whether it's title, escrow, attorney, one of those people, um, they'll go through the documents with you. Now, from the loan perspective, it's the same documents we've sent you 900 times. Fun fact, okay? I read them every time. I know I'm that annoying person, and you know, there's always like there's always one person who just signs the whole package in 10 minutes, and I respect the trust. I'm crazy, I will sit there for 45 minutes and go through the loan, even though I know how the loan was structured. And it just is going to depend on your personality. So, if someone says, "How much time should I expect it to take when I'm signing?" It depends on you. Some people just sign straight through, other people are going to read everything. Know who you are, and it's okay, you know, if you're someone who goes through it fast, as long as you looked at the numbers with your lender before, as long as you understand the loan you're getting into, it's not like we can suddenly bamboozle you and switch the loan package and change your loan terms. There's nothing like that that can happen. But sometimes, that doesn't matter. It's just a personality thing. So, it's okay to embrace whichever person you are, okay?

Now, fun tip that I would always suggest, it's really weird when you're signing a big package of documents 'cause you're hand-signing them, you're dating them, and a, it's tiring, okay? Don't start flipping the way you sign your name. So, if your name is John Smith, you know, don't just start randomly doing, uh, jsmith, or you know, JS. Like, you need to be consistent. If there're somewhere to initial, fine, but with the rest of the way that you sign your name, be consistent. So, think about that before you sign. CU sometimes, people on the first page, it's this beautiful penmanship, it's like calligraphy, right? And then by the end, you're like, "What the hell?" So, funders are always looking for consistency. They have to make sure that every single page is signed and that it's signed where it looks like it's the same person.

Fun thing, I would suggest writing down the date that you're signing on a Post-It note, and I know that sounds very crazy, but when you're signing this many documents, it's really easy to just like get in a zone and forget what year it is. And I know that sounds wild. I had it happened to me on one where suddenly I was like 2 years behind. I don't know what happened, but I think it was like on page 75 that suddenly it became like 2018, okay? So, just know that's normal, and you guys may be like, "Jen, you're just crazy." No, it happens to other people too. I've confirmed. So, keep your signature consistent, um, write the date on a Post-It note, as silly as it sounds.

The other thing is, make sure your driver's license or passport are not expired when you go to sign. They have to verify your identity, and if that stuff is expired, you're in trouble, we can't move forward. It's a problem. You have to have, uh, you know, some sort of documentation that shows who you are, that is current. So, if you're buying a house right now, check your driver's license, you know, check your passport, make sure you have documentation that is valid. You'd be surprised how many times people find out their driver's license is expired when they go to sign, okay?

So, you're going to look at everything, you're going to sign everything, then what? Then you're like, "Cool, give me the keys." No. So, then they're going to take that package, and they're going to send it to the funder. They're going to scan it over to the funder, and the funder needs to review it. So, sometimes I'll get a call from a real estate agent, and they'll be like, "Jen, we signed 20 minutes ago, and they haven't funded yet." And I'm like, "We don't have the package back yet, you know, it has to get scanned to us, and then the funder has to review it." Often the funder has already set up the money, the money's already there, guys, but they got to make sure everything's signed properly before they give what's known as authorization to fund, okay?

So, I think in general, most companies are pretty good at this part, like lenders love to close a deal, so you shouldn't expect a lot of drama. But, like, is it uncommon, could it take an hour after you sign to get keys? Yeah, it could. It's not the norm, but it definitely could. If you have someone who signed that package with you who didn't get it back to the funder, then yeah, it's going to take time.

Now, remember, that's if you're in office, guys. If you're signing with a notary, the notary is going to have to get that package back to the title company, and then they're going to have to get it to the funder. So, whenever you're using a notary, you are not funding the same day, generally, okay? You need to know that because a lot of times, the notary will FedEx it back, then they have to get the package and fund it to the lender, um, that's more of what we would consider a mail-away. So, like, for instance, let's say you're buying an in Florida, but you live in California, you're signing in California, you're going to sign with a notary in California, they're going to FedEx the package to Florida, they're then going to have to scan it to us, and then we'll fund it, okay?

And then we'll fund it. Okay, now generally there's no drama with that, however, I have to say, when there's like big storms across the United States, I'll see it where a FedEx package, we'll call Title every day because we have money ready to go and we'll be calling them and just like, "Hey, hey, did you get it? Did you get it? Did you get it?" And they'll be like, "We haven't gotten the package, we haven't gotten the package." Like everyone's tracking the package. You can't control FedEx, you can't control UPS, you can't control DHL, so there is a margin of error that can happen with that. Worst-case scenario, could you end up signing another package of documents? Yeah, you could, it's that simple. And if you're like, "Well, why doesn't the notary just scan it from California?" Because the company, the company that's handling the transaction in the state you're buying, they need the Originals in order to record the house in your name. Okay, so that is why it happens that way.

Okay, great, you signed, you wired your money or you brought in a cashier's check. Um, now remember, a lender is never going to send you instructions on wiring, ever. If you ever get wire instructions from a lender or a real estate agent, you need to be concerned. It is one of the biggest sources of fraud - wire fraud. And what happens is they hack into real estate agents' or lenders' computers. They'll do the old one was they used to like hit up a real estate agent and be like, "Hey, I'm really interested in the Zillow property, I attached my pre-approval." Yeah, the preapproval was a virus. So now they're in the real estate agent's computer, they know how to like pretend that they're them, and then what they do is, when you get close to closing, they just totally pretend they're them, give you wire instructions to a different country. So, the only people who should be giving you wire instructions, depending on the state, is going to be either the escrow officer or the attorney, some states a title company. Okay, never the real estate agent, never the lender. I don't know many lenders that are even like, we actually have in our signature line, "We will not send you wire instructions at all." And if someone says to me, "Well, Jen, can't you just help me out and get..." No, no, no, we have a policy, if you want wire instructions, you need to get it from the source that you're wiring the money to, 'cause you don't wire your money to the lender. And when that source sends you those wire instructions, I would still call and verify them over the phone as well. And I wouldn't call the phone number on the email with the wire instructions, I would, you know, go to Google, find the company, and verify it with them directly. I can't stress this enough, guys, look it up, wire fraud is a really big thing.

Okay, okay, so you wired your money, or you did the cashier's check, and you've signed, and you're in the office, and your loan just funded. Oh my God, congratulations, you are now a homeowner! And you're like, "Yes!" So, there's a couple of things that can happen, there's a lot of real estate agents that are going to ask you to pose with some, um, signs in the title company. That's on you. Like, look, I love a good family photo, I'm a fan of them. I like it when the real estate agents do it 'cause I'm like, "Yay!" I actually like it when they do pictures of the signing, and I would suggest, guys, like when I signed for the first house that I bought, on my own, on my own, right? Oh, I totally had a picture taken, and I was signing remote, I still had the notary take a picture. It's a proud moment, and you know, like, look, the Escrow Company, house picture around your head, whatever, get a picture when you're signing, it's a big moment in your life. It's a really big moment, like I look back on that picture now, oh my God, I'm going to tear up, and I am so happy, and I am so proud, and that's what you guys should be feeling right now. If this is your first time buying a house, you should be so happy and so proud. There's not necessarily going to be someone saying that there to you, but I'm telling you right now, take that picture, live in that moment. Right there, you are signing for your home, that you qualified for, that you did, that's a big deal, guys, that's a big deal, especially, especially in this era of affordability.

Okay, so, take a picture, be proud of that moment. Um, sometimes the real estate agents will be there, sometimes they'll have keys for you, and then at that point, you're a homeowner, and you're like, "Now what?" Right? And it's going to depend on your contract. You may have it where the seller's still in the house for a couple of days, moving out, you may be able to go straight to your house, but that's it, that's the day. And it can feel a little bit anticlimactic if you're not prepared for that, you know, there is no ticker tape parade, but definitely get a picture of when you're signing and definitely soak in that moment. Okay, you did this, and be proud of yourself.

So, I hope that video helped. I know it's my general style of more rambly, but that's how I see it, that's what I would suggest, guys. Anytime you have questions during the closing, your lender, you can always reach out. Like, I'm always happy to take questions, CJ's always happy to take questions. We try to do enough of our job up front and educate you properly before you get there, so that you can just sink into that moment and not be like, "Wait, what about this? What about this?" Right? Um, so, look, as always, questions, comments, what was your closing day like? Feel free to reach out, I'm here to support you guys. Thanks.