I’m supposed to be at a closing right now, but it ain’t gonna happen!
When buying a new home there are many service providers you will choose to assist you. Of course the first will be your Realtor, but you will also need the services of a lender and closing attorney/title office among others.
I strongly recommend that you request a referral for these services from your Realtor rather than using a friend or choosing the “lowest bidder”. Your agent has day-to-day experience with these professionals and knows who can get the job done and who can turn your transaction into a real estate nightmare!
In this case, the buyer had preselected the lender (a friend) and closing attorney they wanted to use, as is their right, and would not even consider changing to one of my trusted sources. I think that many consumers believe that Realtors get a kickback from their referral partners. Certainly in my case this is not true. I simply want a smooth stress-free transaction for my clients and refer service providers based solely on their successful track record.
From the beginning, the lender (who supposedly had 30 years of experience) was slow and did not seem to understand the basic financing guidelines and timelines we were facing. In fact, one of my trusted lenders could have had the loan closed in the length of time it took him to simply provide the initial approval.
Today, the day of closing, we still do not have a loan package and he has no idea how to expedite that situation. The attorney, who has no vested interest in working hard to keep my business as they are the lender’s friend - not my trusted partner, has been a challenge from the beginning in terms of communication and scheduling and is not willing to get the loan closed today as we did not keep our prescheduled appointment and they want to leave early.
UPDATE: We are now three hours past our scheduled closing time and just received notice from the lender that they are not accepting the appraisal "as is" so it must be put back through the system. With no timeline provided by the lender, it looks like we are destined to close as late as late next week.
Moral of the story.... I cannot state strongly enough that choosing service providers based on a proven track record is the only choice that makes sense when the little bit of money you might have saved is eaten up by storage facility costs and interim housing needs.
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