Real Estate Blog - 'How long will the closing take?'

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'How long will the closing take?'

'It depends.'

That's usually how I will begin trying to answer that question. Because it really does depend -- on a lot of things.

First of all, it depends on the borrower, and how much time they are going to take. All borrowers are different. Some will say, 'I've done this a thousand times. Just show me where to sign.' They want to get it over with as quickly as possible.

reader And there are those who are very cautious. Mistrustful even. They want to take the time to read everything. What might normally take one hour can turn into two hours.

The irony is that, sometimes the people who tell you they just want to get it over with, they end up taking the most time.

stack of documents It also depends on the size of the loan package. But even that can be misleading.

I had a RESPA signing that consisted of only 30 pages, but the borrower took more than an hour to sign them. Since he was seeing the documents for the first time, he wanted to take his time and read them.

Then there was the borrower who had to sign the loan documents during his lunch break. We met at a restaurant for the closing. I couldn't imagine how he was going to do it. But he signed all of the documents. Close to 150 pages -- in 45 minutes. So the size of the loan package is not a good indicator of how long it will take.

Power of Attorney signings can take longer because the borrower has to sign for someone else. And there is special wording that they have to use.

And then there are the unforeseen circumstances.

doctor's office Because we are able to do closings at the borrower's place of work, that can present some problems sometimes.

For example, if the borrower is a doctor. They may unexpectedly have to tend to a patient.

There are so many things that can happen in a closing. So when a borrower asks me, 'How long will it take?', I think back on all of the closing situations that I have experienced, and all of the various problems that I have encountered along the way. And I have to start by saying:

'It depends.'

Posted by Leon Austin, Colorado Springs Mobile Notary on 01/14/2009 05:14 AM

Comments (12)

closing

Originally posted at: Colorado Springs Notary - Leon Austin: 'How long will the closing take?'

12 Comments on 'How long will the closing take?'

JAN

We are lucky in Akron Ohio, I guess. A closing is almost always completed in 30 days or less.

I joke with folks a whole bunch on this one. I tell tell them that you will see a big stack of papers and a set of keys. Now I know you want the keys as soon as possible so the faster you get through the stack the faster you get the keys.

On a serious note I also let them know that anything they sign has been well reviewd and debated in court. Sign and read later and I will answer any questions (of course before some of the crazy programs that we had)

Tony

When I close on homes for myself my Attorney loves me. It takes about 10 minutes. 8 minutes to catch up and 2 minutes to sign.

David, that is a good time frame.

Tony, that set of keys on the stack of documents is a nice enticement to get the borrowers to sign quickly.

Laura, those must be very short stacks of documents. A normal stack of loan documents is around 100 pages. And there are many documents that have to be notarized. I wish it were possible to get them signed in 10 minutes.

Tony: I think telling someone at a closing to "sign and read later" might open you to some pretty heavy liability later on. If I am with someone, and I am signing papers, and they told me to "sign and read them later"... it would really "red flag" me... and I would probably be tempted to either stop the process, demand all the paperwork, take it with me, and come back another day... or just sit there and read each page thoroughly. Wow... I can see their attorneys lining up already.

It usually takes about 30 days here in TN - always more quickly if it is a cash deal!

Leon: I think your answer of "it depends" is really about the best answer you can give. I have seen buyer's closings go from anywhere to twenty to twenty five minutes... to easily over an hour... depending on the buyer. As you said, and rightly so... it depends. Thanks for sharing.

Norma, that too is a pretty good time frame.

Karen, I used to try to give the borrowers an estimate. But I quickly learned that ... anything can happen.

Closings don't take long usually because, if the agents have educated the buyers/sellers, they are aware of what is going to happen. That is, if the attorney has everything in order. However, the old saying that "It's not over until it's over" applies!

Bruce & Mary, I too find that the closings that go the smoothest are the ones in which the loan officers have thoroughly gone over everything with the borrowers.

One thing that I wanted to point out that I didn't mention in the original post is that many of the closings that notary signing agents do are refinances. And if they are FHA loans, the packages of loan documents can be quite large.

This is an average size of loan documents:

130 pages. Although I have had many that were even larger!

As you can imagine, it comes as a real shock to the borrowers when I pull the documents out of my briefcase and set them on the table.

'We have to sign all of that?!'

Right on - it does dependon so many things

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