In Search of The Perfect Close

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“Closing” — the mere thought of the word in regards to a real estate transaction can make even the most seasoned agent or investor cringe. There are a lot of things that can create a glitch in the closing process. These glitches can range from simple annoyances to something serious enough to cancel the transaction.

Successfully closing a real estate transaction requires the effort of many people, such as:
A Buyer
A Seller
A Buyer’s Agent
A Seller’s Agent
A Loan Officer
A Loan Underwriter
A Title Company
An Appraiser
A Home Inspector
A County Recorder’s Office

And probably a few more I can’t think of right now.

That’s a lot of people. And all it takes is one of them to foul something up.

It’s the agents job to make sure neither the buyer or seller run afoul. A good agent can (and SHOULD) do everything humanly possible to ensure a successful, and smooth close. That is the biggest part of our job, in my opinion. I dog everyone I have to–including anyone on the above list.

There are some things that can happen however, that are completely out of the agents control. For example, if I am the seller’s agent, and the buyer goes off and buys a new car prior to closing–thereby killing his loan–there’s not much I can do. The BUYERS agent however, should have warned his client not to do that. I give all my buyers a list of “do’s & don’ts” well in advance of them needing it. And we review it frequently. Do all agents do this for their buyer’s? Apparently not, judging by some of the wacky things I’ve seen buyers do.

So is there such a thing as “The Perfect Close”? I suppose that depends on how you define “Perfect Close”…
In my opinion, the perfect close is a close that happens on time, with NO involvement on my part. That’s the Perfect Close in my world. The perfect close I really care about though, is the CLIENT’S Perfect Close. From their perspective, a perfect close is one that happens on time, and the numbers (closing costs, mortgage payments, payoffs, etc.) are exactly what they expected. The client could care less how much I have to be involved to make that happen. And to be honest, I don’t care either. It is MY JOB to ensure MY CLIENT has a Perfect Close.

So do my clients ever experience a Perfect Close? Absolutely–the vast majority of the time. Yes, I’ve had closings slip a few days due to previously mentioned things out of my control. But even those weren’t too bad for my clients, as of course I warned them well before closing what things might happen. My client’s have *NEVER* been surprised at anything that happens in their real estate transactions.

Have I ever experienced MY version of a Perfect Close? Yes, once, just last week. I had the buyer in the transaction, and got lucky and was working with one of the best agents I’ve worked with (Dan Mulligan). My buyers were using a great loan officer (Kirk Howard) who has his own underwriter (a HUGE plus), and the title company was First American on Alma School. It was flawless. Buyers were prepared, Sellers were prepared. Loan docs were at title ONE FULL WEEK EARLY (unheard of, unless Kirk at Bell Mortgage is doing the loan) and First American had everything done right EARLY. Buyers and sellers both signed DAYS before the scheduled close and the deal recorded at 10:00am on the scheduled date. It was flawless. It was grand. And it’ll probably never happen again.