Imagine, you have signed a purchase contract to buy a house. You and your family are very excited! As part of the purchase contract you and the seller signed, there are several things you are committing to do. One of these things? The close date. As you and your spouse review the close date, you recognize it is less than ideal.
Maybe it doesn’t fit with the move out date you are planning on your current residence.
It could be that you have a trip or previously scheduled engagement around the close date. Perhaps there are some appliance deliveries or flooring and paint contractors that would like to get access to the home earlier. It might even be that your excitement is getting the best of you and you do not want to wait.
No matter what it may be, something has come up and you would like to change the previously committed closing date. You want to close earlier. You ask your realtor and home loan advisor, “can we close early?”
If you close early, here’s what it means:
DISRUPTION TO PEOPLE
We are well into the 21st century. It seems like real estate transactions should be streamlined and simple. Although improvements have been made to make some transactions better, a lot of people are still required to ensure your real estate transactions close properly:
- Buyer’s realtor
- Seller’s realtor
- Buyer’s transaction coordinator
- Seller’s transaction coordinator
- Escrow officer
- Title company
- Lender
- Processor
- Mortgage loan originator
- Appraiser
- Underwriter
- Insurance agent
- Insurance carrier
- and more….
Each of these individuals have a lot of work to do to get the transaction closed. In fact, most of their work points to the close date. Any time that date is changed in the middle of the transaction, it makes everyone involved adjust or redo the work they have already done.
DISRUPTION TO YOUR TRANSACTION
All the people mentioned above are unified around the closing date and the transaction they are working on for you. Changes to the terms can have a negative impact on this unity. When a close date changes, not only do people have to redo work, now the transaction timing is in jeopardy because the goal posts are being moved. Because so many other arrangements are attached to the previously agreed upon close date, these other items may now need adjusting. And each of these adjustments will add disruption to the transaction.
DISRUPTION TO COMMITMENTS
A purchase contract is a commitment. You are signing your name to a legal document that states you will do certain things. Changing the close date, one of the most important commitments you make on the purchase contract, also disrupts all the other commitments you have made on the contract. All of the items on the commitments on the contract are related. Many of them work together. Changing a key commitment like the closing date will also require changes to other commitments as well.
Can you close early? Yes! It is something that can be done, and it is something we do regularly.
However, you need to have your expectations managed. Changing the close date to an earlier one will add disruption to your home loan purchase. As a result, your purchase experience will require extra grace from you!
