Dry Closing?

[parallel]

I had never heard of such a thing, until yesterday. We were all set to close on the second house when I was informed that there might be a delay. Now personally, I don't mind a slight delay (the financing is good until the 22cd) as long as the delay isn't caused by me. The contract states that if I delay the closing there will be a $100 a day penalty that I would have to pay to the seller.

So, the title company tells me that the seller (a bank) is unable/unwilling to email the documents that they have signed in California. So, they will sign them and fax them to the title company, then they will FEDEX the originals to the Title company which should receive them on Monday. The long and the short of it is that even though the certified check for our closing cost is with the Title company, and we have signed all of the papers (as has the seller), we won't actually own the house until sometime on Monday.

 

[mtb1bkr]

I feel your pain. The seller of our current house, a bank, accepted our offer on August 4, 2008. We were ready to move in September 1 of 2008. There was only one piece of paper holding up the closing, the grant deed. The bank had it from the 20th or so of August and didn't end up signing it and getting it to the closing agent until the end of September. Meanwhile, we were living in the Motel 6 from September 1 until then. PITA banks!!!

Bill

 

[Bailey Boat]

A dry closing is when everything is complete except the exchange of monies pending something insignificant. You're committed but not complete.....

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

I had never heard of such a thing, until yesterday. We were all set to close on the second house when I was informed that there might be a delay. Now personally, I don't mind a slight delay (the financing is good until the 22cd) as long as the delay isn't caused by me. The contract states that if I delay the closing there will be a $100 a day penalty that I would have to pay to the seller.

So, the title company tells me that the seller (a bank) is unable/unwilling to email the documents that they have signed in California. So, they will sign them and fax them to the title company, then they will FEDEX the originals to the Title company which should receive them on Monday. The long and the short of it is that even though the certified check for our closing cost is with the Title company, and we have signed all of the papers (as has the seller), we won't actually own the house until sometime on Monday.

I'm not trying to stirr some sh!t, but if it were me, no funds would be released until the original has everybody's signature on it and is on it's way to the Courthouse for filing. I don't do real estate closings any more mind you and none since the electronic age but when we used to sit across the table and sign-the lawyer/closing agent(who should be working for YOU) didn't let any money change hands until everybody signed anything that needed signing. Plus, I'd be plenty p!ssed that the title company didn't forsee this and see to it that these documents were in their hands Friday. BUt you are dealing with national banks so this sort of glitch can be expected. Another reason why I advocate always using local banking whenever possible over the big regionals. You're in Assumption Parish which hase some good local banks within spitting distance.

 

[parallel]

I'm not trying to stirr some sh!t, but if it were me, no funds would be released until the original has everybody's signature on it and is on it's way to the Courthouse for filing. I don't do real estate closings any more mind you and none since the electronic age but when we used to sit across the table and sign-the lawyer/closing agent(who should be working for YOU) didn't let any money change hands until everybody signed anything that needed signing. Plus, I'd be plenty p!ssed that the title company didn't forsee this and see to it that these documents were in their hands Friday. BUt you are dealing with national banks so this sort of glitch can be expected. Another reason why I advocate always using local banking whenever possible over the big regionals. You're in Assumption Parish which hase some good local banks within spitting distance.

No money has change hands (except that the closing agent has the cashiers check) as the closing agent will not disperse any payments until all of the paperwork is squared away.

The bank that had the issue with emailing the signed documents was the seller (bank owns the house) not my lender. The thing is that technically, if I wouldn't have signed the papers on Friday, I COULD have been the cause for the delay. You see, the contract stated that the seller (the bank that owns the house) would receive all paperwork 72 hours before closing so that they could review, sign and deliver the documents on closing day. NFCU didn't get them the final documents until 48 hours before closing.

Also, I'm in St. John the Baptist Parish, not Assumption parish. I choose NFCU for two reasons. First, if THEY said that I could afford to do this then I can. NFCU is one of the most stringent lenders around, their default rate is next to nothing for a reason. Second, by going with them I paid about $2600 less in fees than I would have by going with the next less expensive local lender. Some other national lenders had a slightly better interest rate, but by the time one paid all of the outrageous fees I still ended up being better off going with Navy Federal Credit Union.

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

No money has change hands (except that the closing agent has the cashiers check) as the closing agent will not disperse any payments until all of the paperwork is squared away.

The bank that had the issue with emailing the signed documents was the seller (bank owns the house) not my lender. The thing is that technically, if I wouldn't have signed the papers on Friday, I COULD have been the cause for the delay. You see, the contract stated that the seller (the bank that owns the house) would receive all paperwork 72 hours before closing so that they could review, sign and deliver the documents on closing day. NFCU didn't get them the final documents until 48 hours before closing.

Also, I'm in St. John the Baptist Parish, not Assumption parish. I choose NFCU for two reasons. First, if THEY said that I could afford to do this then I can. NFCU is one of the most stringent lenders around, their default rate is next to nothing for a reason. Second, by going with them I paid about $2600 less in fees than I would have by going with the next less expensive local lender. Some other national lenders had a slightly better interest rate, but by the time one paid all of the outrageous fees I still ended up being better off going with Navy Federal Credit Union.

What I said about national banks most definately does NOT apply to Credit Unions. Every one I've dealt with has been first class-I do a lot of dealings with Barksdale Federal Credit Union up in Shreveport. Your last post clears things up a bit. Remember EVERY closing has one or tw glitches-roll with the flow and sorry about the Assumption Parish bit, St. John the Baptist Parish is nice too

 

[parallel]

I'm beginning to get more than a little pissed off now! I just got off the phone with my Realtor who says the title company is now saying that the seller's company name is not correct on the documents. So, they had to retype them and send them again for the sellers to sign. This is madness. How damn hard is it to either provide the correct name of your company (which is what I believe happened) or to type the damned name in and PROOFREAD the ******* thing. It is one thing to make a typo in an email or some other document that isn't part of a legal document... but this is just ridiculous.

 

[parallel]

Okay, I think we have it taken care of now. It turns out that whoever typed in the company name of the seller didn't use their head for something besides a hat rack and listed the letterhead information. The problem with that? The letterhead was from the parent company of the division that is actually selling the property. The name of THAT company was listed plain as day in the text of the contract. So... I finally demanded a play by play of what has gone wrong thus far... and here it is:

It turns out that the seller never really had a problem with the concept of signing the documents, scanning them into a computer and then sending the originals via overnight courier. The problem arose when it was discovered at 1630 on Friday (1/2 hour AFTER we were supposed to begin closing) that the seller had not yet received the email containing the documents that they were to sign. So... naturally, they had to delay things from their end in order to fully review the documents. They did so and sent an email outlining the error. Of course, the title company was closed by then and they didn't get the email until this morning.

None of this is all that big a deal for me except that the title company only has 72 hours to get the original documents into the hands of NFCU in Pensacola, FL. I had to ask how they were going to do that. The answer was that because we didn't close until after hours Friday, the 72 hours didn't start until this morning. Well... we'll see... somehow I'm not convinced that these people have any idea what they are doing.