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the tick tick tick of the second hand sweeps toward tomorrow

By
Real Estate Agent with @properties

The new on time is five minutes early.

At least.

Unless it's funding at a closing. Then it's all bets off.

Then it's icy cups of unpalatable coffee in mostly inorganic cups. Then it's expectant looks each time the closer re-enters the room at the downtown title company. But those returns usually are for missed signatures, questions about figures, or simple sashays of folks who often seem dissatisfied with their jobs in workplaces emptier now that the boom went fizzle.

And so it goes. And so it has been the last several closings. Three for the last three for two Chicago condos and one luxury home in the past week or so.

Reasons? Perhaps inattentive mortgage brokers who seem more interested in getting the business in the first place and not crossing the t's and dotting the i's after getting the business. Who are these guys? One thing is for sure, they aren't sitting at the closing table using their wit and wisdom to resolve last minute issues, questions or problems. And no matter what, in the current environment there always is an issue, question or problem. There is always a last minute bridge to cross and it's easier to cross with the mortgage broker on hand.

And so when my client Katie's deal got stuck in the muck because the underwriter detected an unpaid student loan that she had paid but evidently wasn't part of the underwriter's paperwork, the absent broker was nowhere to be seen and had to be tracked down to smooth a situation that delayed the closing by several hours and forced Katie to go online using the title company's slightly ancient pc to pull up bank records to clarify and mollify.

Or when Chris's deal for a single family a block from the lake lasted from 10.30 to nearly the close of business it looked like a clear conduit of info wasn't that clear after all to explain funds derived from his recent sale of his San Francisco condo as well as his form of remuneration from his employer. The deal closed. But the delay was inconvenient, unnecessary and avoidable.

Or when the closer couldn't track the wire transfer for whatever reason and the deal sat stalled for an inordinate and unnecessary length of time as Karina waited for the keys to slide across the table so she could take rightful possession of her new Lakeview home. The truth is that in this instance the mortgage broker had wired funds the day before and they sat in the queue waiting for the apparently fatigued closer to pull them to the surface.

What's the point? If there is a point it is that if you are heading to a closing any time soon don't expect that it will close all that soon. Which means that for a 9am closing you may want to postpone lunch until dinner. A noon closing may not wrap up until after the close of business. And anything on a Friday in the afternoon could easily lead to what is known as a "dry close."

Hmm, I had forgotten, I had one of those too recently. Brian and Maggie are clients you love. Not only are they extraordinarly nice but anytime you need something within five minutes of asking for it they scan it to you. Somehow the underwriter was unable to connect the dots despite the best attempts by the mortgage broker to assist them. As the minute hand swept into hour mode the prospect of closing their condo, their first purchase, became untenable. And midday the next day the dream of home ownership finally was realized, not quite 24 hours later. The reason? Somewhere along the line a t went uncrossed and an i went undotted.

Once upon a time a friend told me about sins of omission and those of commission. In the above real-life scenarios I don't think anybody necessarily purposefully did things wrong, errantly or with and eye to create discomfort. But whether it was a mortgage broker, an underwriter, a closer or someone in between, things went undone and inconveniences for my clients, their clients as well, resulted by dint of something that these professionals omitted in the course of doing their jobs.

And so, as we trace the zen-like circle around we arrive back at the starting point of the new on time being five minutes early.

Unless it's funding at a closing. Then it's all bets off.

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