The Closing

After the buyers have finished their due diligence process, agreed repairs have been done, and the buyers have received their final loan approval from their lender, the buyer’s agent will normally schedule a closing with their attorney of choice. As a seller, you have the right to be represented by a different attorney at the closing, but this will cost you more. Although the closing attorney represents the buyers, he/she also has to represent the lenders (discharge your existing mortgages and sign the new ones), and can represent the sellers.

In theory, the closing attorney will produce the closing statement (HUD-1) showing the financial balance of the transaction, and have all documents for your review and perusal several days before the closing. In reality, attorneys only provide the HUD-1 statement the day before the closing (because the lender usually delivers the “closing package” to the attorney at the last minute) and you will have to review all the paperwork at the closing.

Buyers will have to sign an amazing amount of papers at the closing, especially if they are getting two mortgages. Sellers’ paperwork, on the other hand, is much simpler and short. A “normal” closing can take anywhere from 45 minutes to 1 hour. If someone insists on reading the fine print on every page, that person will probably draw some serious groans from all the others at the table. One practical solution is to request copies of all of the standard forms a week before the closing, so that you, your attorney and your REALTOR® can read them thoroughly before. At the closing you need only to make sure that all the information is filled in correctly.