Thursday, June 10, 2010

Closing Date and Possession Date the Same! Really?

In the past within the central Ohio real estate market place, it was more common that the closing date was different than the possession date. The closing date is the day title legally changes hands. When the buyer gets possession of the property is always negotiable.

Again, it used to be customary in our area to give the seller an extra 3 to 4 days to move out completely. Ideally, in a perfect world the buyer gets possession on the day the deal closes, however, in today’s crazy last minute world, I’m not so sure that possession date and closing date should ever be the same. For both the buyer and seller, this can wreak havoc on their personal and financial lives.

Within the last year, we have seen closing after closing where the seller has moved out of the house only to find that the buyer does not get approved until the very last minute or not at all.

We have even had deals where the buyer's loan was still in underwriting and "not approved" until they walked into the closing room. I could write a chapter or two on "bomb outs". This does not make good sense for either side when they have their moving trucks in our parking lots and it doesn’t close that day or worse off doesn’t close the next day or even weeks later.  You can only imagine the ramifications.

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