What To Expect When You’re Closing On A House

Closing on a house is one of the more tedious steps in the home buying process, even more so for a first time homebuyer. However, if you know what to expect and manage your expectations you will have a better experience. I’m sure your mortgage loan office or your real estate agent has told you what to expect when you’re closing on your home. But I thought a view from a home inspector might shed a unique light that you could benefit from.

The Home Inspection Process

Your home inspection is one of the bigger obstacles you will overcome to get to your closing. While many argue that a home inspection can make or break a deal, I encourage not to look at it that way. As your home inspector, our goal is to educate you as much as we can about your home before you buy it. The last thing you want to do is find a major repair that you have to address soon after you’ve spent all that money buying the house. And that’s what we want to avoid too. So, we will point out a bunch of little things. In fact, we’ll point out as much little things as we can because we just want to cover everything. But more importantly, we’ll point out any major concerns or issues that we find. How you address them with the seller is completely up to you.

The Closing Documents

I won’t bore you by talking about or breaking down your closing documents. Instead, I will warn you of all the documents you should be prepared to gather. Closing is a term used for the day you sign on your house. Essentially, you “close” on the home and it’s yours. However, the process itself starts much earlier. You’ll be asked to pull many documents from all over the place. If you have a good mortgage loan officer, they will provide you with a list of documents the lender will need way ahead of time. Hopefully, you’ll have more than enough time to get everything together. Because the more prepared you are, the faster you can close.

All The Signing

The statement “You’ll sign your life away” comes from this specific day. Unlike borrowing money for just about any other loan, this one in particular requires many, many signatures. So, on your actual day of closing, you’ll sit down with the title officer. Sometimes your real estate agent or mortgage officer will join you to help walk you through all the paperwork and answer any questions you might have. And as they walk you through what you’re signing, you just keep signing. And signing. And signing. And finally, when they have all the signatures they need and verify your deposit, notarize the documents, file them, etc. then you’re finally done! And you should walk out of there with the keys.

If you’ve purchased a house before then this information may seem mundane. But think back to the very first home you purchased. Did you know to this level of detail what would be happening? Do you wish you did? Sometimes having more detail can help turn down the anxiety that naturally comes with buying a home. So can having a great home inspector!