Are you looking for the most expensive $8000 you may ever receive?  Are you willing to risk your financial security to pick up an "easy" $8,000?

That's how I feel right now about the rush by 1st time buyers and agents to get contracts signed by the end of the month so buyers can close by November 30.  We are talkng about a deadline after a typically 4 day weekend, with tryptophan, Black Friday, the Detroit Lions being dismantled whilst we sleep off a load of turkey and trimmings, and in some areas, the first day of antlered deer season, itself a religious holiday for many hunters.

Talk about stress and duress!  As the clock ticks down, will buyers fall into traps of closing with loose ends, just to get $8,000?  Will repairs be complete?  Will they be completed properly?

On December 1, a buyer under contract is still generally a buyer under contract, regardless of why closing was delayed.  So, overnight, that $155,000 dream for a shoestring buyer turns to a $163,000 nightmare.   And if the buyer firmly designated those funds to restock the savings, or to buy furniture, or to do some renovations, etc, etc?  Ouch.

My favorite closing attorney told me he is scheduling NO first time buyers for November 30 closings.  What if they can't record?  What if they are en route to the courthouse at 4:30 and a tractor trailer flips and closes the highway?  Or they have a flat tire? And the courthouse closes before they can record?  Who is liable for the lost $8,000?  And who is liable if they have 6 deeds to record in the car that doesn't get there?  Who picks up the lost $48,000?

Haste makes Waste, Folks.  And right now I am seeing a whole lot of Haste.