Home Purchase: How to Survive your 30 day escrow

The market is phenomenal and the opportunity to buy a home is now. Many of you are taking advantage of the opportunity and that is amazing. Warren Buffet said, "We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful."  Many of you are listening.

The time-line for an escrow to close is 30 days in most cases. In the thirty calendar day period we need to get our inspections done, appraisals done, have the loan underwritten, satisfy any conditions of the loan and be understanding of the turn-times of the third party services we employ. It is a cooperative group effort. I have given you below a few tips to help you survive the 30 day escrow and sneak out a winner.

Tip #1 - Be responsive to the requests from the professionals you hired- Before you began the process of buying a home you found a few professionals that you felt would best help you through the process. Many times these professionals (Real Estate Agent and Loan Officer) do not make the rules of the game. They are there to facilitate the process. If one of these professionals request documentation or a check for a service be quick to get them what they need. Your process will stop without it.

Tip #2 - Provide the documentation requested - It is imperative to provide all of the documentation requested. Do not try to find a way around it or think that something will be sufficient if that something is not what was requested. If you do not have what was requested get with your affiliate or loan officer and come up with an alternative. Holding back information from professionals that are on your team can cost you in the long run.

Tip #3 - Remember that we are on your side - All too often we forget that we are all on the same team. A victory is represented by a closed transaction. Communication is the key to that transaction. It stems from all parties who all have a lot riding on a transaction. Small details excluded can lead to a disaster that was avoidable upfront. Tell me the property is zoned service commercial and grandfathered in so I may come up with a solution prior to the problem.

Tip #4 - Be Prepared to fight for the home you want - It is not 2003, 04, 05 and obtaining a mortgage is a little more invasive than the past. If you could fog a mirror we gave you money in the past. Now we are asking for Birth Certificates to show the child support will continue for three years. The age on the application is no longer significant. This starts with the investors and trickles down to the buyer. Nothing good comes easy in life. It will pay off to be diligent and fight for the property.

Tip #5 - Everything is time sensitive - The purchase time-line is as follows. You go into contract and the clock starts. Your loan officer orders the appraisal, gets all the signed disclosures for the property, requests the preliminary title report and a copy of the fully executed purchase contract. Our wholesalers want a complete package to look at your file. The appraisal can be anywhere from 3-5 days, preliminary title report depends solely on the title company (I have dealt with companies in Philadelphia), Fully Executed Contract which can take time if the property is bank owned 3-15 days I have waited and all of this prior to submitting the loan to underwriting. Once we have all the documentation we can submit to underwriting which can be 3-9 days to underwrite. Business Days but the weekends count on the escrow. Once the file is approved there are generally a few conditions to meet and to be reviewed once they are obtained can be 2-4 days. When they are cleared and we are able to order your loan documents this is a 2-3 day job. Then we sign and the package is returned to be reviewed for funding. The funding process is 2-3 days. So if you add up the days on the short end a perfect process can take up to 12 business days with no hold up at all. This would include 2-3 weekends at 6days and we close the escrow in 20 calender days. On the long end 34 business days and 4 weekends would be a 42 day escrow.

In summary, it would require a group effort to survive your 30 day escrow. Note that we all have the same goal in mind. Home-ownership for you as the client is our goal and what we do best. I look forward to working with all of you in the years to come.