Dealing With Closing Delays

Posted by Michelle's Central Florida on Oct 12, 2016 in Blog | 0 comments

As much as everyone involved with a real estate transaction wants to bring it to a successful, on-time close—things happen. In fact, ALL KINDS of things can happen to derail well-laid plans for a smooth transition. I’m not saying this to scare you about an already stressful life situation, I just want you to be prepared. Be patient. Be flexible.

Ever since October last year, the process of closing on a real estate transaction got a bit more complicated. There were new forms introduced, new rules and a mandated 3-day waiting period before closing when the buyer gets final closing numbers and has three days to think about it. That makes things very tricky now when there are back to back closings. Sellers are often in limbo between closing on the house they just sold and buying their next house.

As a Realtor, I’ve seen people work this out in various ways. Some put their things in storage and stay somewhere temporarily. Others ask to rent back their place from the new owners for a short period of time. This is something us Realtors generally do not advise, since legal issues could crop up should something happen during their stay. However, a legal document could be drawn up by an attorney, with perhaps a deposit held as security.

My husband and I just bought a house on September 27th—but we still have not moved in yet! We are in a situation as mentioned above. We allowed the sellers to stay until October 7th but then Hurricane Matthew happened! Their closing on their new house was postponed since everything shut down last Friday because of the storm. So, we patiently waited for the new closing date and just got word it will be next Friday!

We saw this coming as we were approaching our supposed moving date last week and watched the Weather Channel. There really was no point in fighting the inevitable inconvenience and we simply made the best of it. I just sat down and called everyone to reschedule all the stop and start of services, movers, etc. Then I took my time to clean and pack some more.

When it’s time for you to buy or sell, it would be my pleasure to guide you through the sometimes sticky process. Call me at 407-236-6559 and let’s chat about your goals. Need to get pre qualified for a mortgage? Watson makes it easy. Simply visit www.ApplyWithWatson.com.