We warmly welcome Colleen Kuerth from Indian Land, SC to the Lennar family and are excited to have her share her home buying experience with us. Having recently closed on her own Lennar home, Colleen shares her tips and insights for a stress-free closing. Visit Lennar’s Resource Center to learn more about the closing process.
Buying a home is a truly exciting, and sometimes stressful, experience. Having gone through it twice now, once with an existing home and once with a new build, I can tell you that the new build experience was quite different. Before your closing you will have your final walk-through, going over a checklist of any items you indicated you would like fixed from your first walk-through. This is typically a pretty quick event. Make sure you have a copy of the items you wanted fixed so that nothing is forgotten. It will give you peace of mind so you can focus on the actual closing.
Something else that is different about a new-build purchase is your property tax assessment. Typically the county will have only assessed taxes based on the value of the property before a home was built on it. The following year they adjust it according to the new value with a home. Our loan processor and closing attorney went over all of this with us at the closing, but be sure to ask about your taxes and escrow payment if it is not addressed.
Here are some other tips to help ensure your closing goes smoothly and is stress-free:
TACKLE ONE THING AT A TIME
Once you sign the dotted line on your Purchase and Sales Agreement, it might seem like you are immediately bombarded with loan processors asking you to send them your entire life’s financial and work history. Every time I received an email asking for a piece of documentation I added it to an list I had on my computer. I looked at the list and identified what items I knew I could locate quickly and were easily accessible and started with those first. Just tackling one document at a time was less stressful than attempting to locate everything all at once, especially since some items would take me longer to locate.
DON’T PROCRASTINATE
Following from the tip above, fight the urge to ignore and put off those document requests. The sooner you send in your documents and paperwork, the sooner you can sit back and breathe a sigh of relief that your loan application is complete. Because there are so many steps that must be completed before a loan is approved, it is in your best interest to try and get that done as far in advance from your closing as possible. That way you avoid scrambling at the end to get something important that could hold up your closing and delay everything.
ASK QUESTIONS
I cannot stress this one enough. I consider myself a fairly intelligent person and there were many times that I was confused and did not entirely understand some portion of the loan application process. If there is something that doesn’t make sense to you, ask your loan processor to clarify it for you. If they are not the correct person to answer your question, they will direct you to someone that can. Knowing what you are signing, as opposed to just going through it blindly, will make you more confident in your decision and may help ease some frustration you have over the complication of today’s mortgage lending process. Remember, there are no stupid questions.
TRANSFER YOUR FUNDS EARLY
A week or so before your closing (or maybe earlier), you will be informed exactly what funds you are expected to bring to the closing. Most closing attorneys will require that the funds are wire transferred into a special account. Once you know that amount and the wire transfer information, get the process started. Make sure you ask your bank how long wire transfers take, what options they have for transfers, and any fees associated with those option. There can be quite a big difference in a fee for a three day wire transfer and an overnight wire transfer. Once you have set up the transfer, after the allotted time your bank requires for it to process, contact the closing attorney’s office to make sure that it went through.The last thing you want is to think that everything is all set just to find out the day of the closing that they never received your funds. That would result in having to delay your closing until the funds were received. It is ultimately your responsibility, not the attorney’s or your lender’s, to make sure that your funds are there.
TAKE THE DAY OFF
Or at least take the rest of the day off, following your closing. Most people will probably do this, as they will be moving in right away, but even if you are not it is a good idea to free up your day. Your closing may take longer than you think, or it might start later because of a delay at the attorney’s office. You just never know what might come up, and you don’t want to be sitting in the closing thinking about how you need to be back to work in fifteen minutes. You need to focus on the, very important, task at hand- which is essentially making one of the largest purchases you ever will make in your entire life. Eliminate any other distractions. Which leads me to…
HIRE A BABYSITTER
We moved over 1000 miles away from our families and didn’t really know anyone yet in our new town, so we did not have anyone to ask to watch our two small children during our closing. I actually thought, for a brief moment, about bringing them with us. I mean, it was just signing a bunch of paperwork, right? Yeah, bad idea. Unless your kids are older and have the capacity to sit still and silent for longer than 30 minutes, you should definitely not bring them to your closing if you can avoid it. Fortunately, I had previously joined an online childcare service and had hired some sitters for other events and the occasional date night. I made sure to secure a sitter for the day of the closing well in advance. That way they did not have to come to either our final walk-through or the closing itself, allowing us to just focus on all the important legal stuff and not entertaining our kids.
Even though it is very official, and at times redundant, your closing is an exciting event. You don’t want to be tense or anxious about last-minute aggravations. So, do whatever it takes for you to feel confident and prepared for the big day, leaving more room for happy dances and champagne toasts.
Colleen Kuerth recently moved to Carolina Reserve, a Lennar neighborhood in Indian Land, South Carolina, with her husband and two young sons. She is a Graphic Designer and Blogger at kuerthcreative.com.
