We are now 28 days away from closing which is still quite a long time but we have been making small steps to a closing. From my last post you know we had completed our inspection. The steps after the inspection are largely out of your hands and your mortgage consultant will handle them- but you should still be involved and know what is happening.
Since the inspection we have completed, signed and sent back all of our mortgage paperwork. Get ready to sign and initial a lot of papers, and get a lot of personal paperwork together- bank statements, paychecks, W-2s, etc. Some of this paperwork you may have already given to your mortgage consultant depending on how much pre-work you have done- but you just need make sure to give them updated paperwork. This was something we had to do because our original paperwork was submitted with my maiden name- so we had to update a lot of it.
Another thing we saw on the mortgage statement was an estimate of all the money we need to bring to the closing table- which is more than just the money we are putting down on the house. You will also need to pay the fees for the mortgage consultant, appraisal, title search, and closing costs. Our closing costs are covered for up to $3,000 by the sellers so we do not have to bring that to the table, but there are some additional costs that I was originally not aware of. I am very glad we got to see this early just so we can prepare and make sure we have all the money we need at the closing table.
We also learned last week that the appraisal went through!! The appraisal is basically the bank making sure the house is valued at the amount you are buying the house for; it is ordered by your mortgage consultant so you will just hear when it is completed. This is a big concern now at closings- because if the house does not appraise for the value you are buying it, the bank will not approve the loan amount and the sale can fall apart.
There are have been a couple other things we have worked on so far to prepare for the move. We contacted our insurance agency and decided on a homeowners policy. This needs to be done prior to closing otherwise you will not be allowed to close. By combining our home and auto insurance we are getting a little bit of a discount on the policies- which is very nice- I'm all about a discount!
We also contacted our apartment complex and told them we were moving out. I had to give our apartment 30 days notice but make sure to check your individual rental contract and to give them enough notice so you do not get hit with any additional fees. One thing that is going to make this move a bit challenging is that we are scheduled to close on July 30 and we have to be completely out of our apartment on July 31. Otherwise we are going to have to pay for the entire month of August. So we are going to have 2 very busy days! Let's hope for an early closing time on July 30th!
We are now basically waiting on the closing date- financial items and title search are still being worked on- but I think we are just waiting- and will be notified from our mortgage consultant if we need to do anything else. This whole process has been dragged out a bit because our closing date is so far away. The process can be completed in a much shorter time frame but our mutually agreed upon date was about two months out when we signed the contract so we are moving just a bit slower than normal. But this gives me more time to pack and organize so hopefully the actual move will go smoothly!
Until next time...
JS
