What happens at your real estate closing?

If the end of your home buying process draws near, you may have questions about your closing and what all it entails. The Home Buying Institute explains that closing represents the final step of the entire process.

You and/or the seller have already taken care of all the details; i.e., purchase price, inspections, title insurance, etc. Now closing is the only thing left to finish the sale and give you legal title to your new home.

Closing steps

On the day of your closing, you, the seller, the real estate agent and anyone else involved in this sale likely will meet together, probably at the real estate agent’s office. You will then proceed through the following steps:

1. Your escrow agent will give you several legal documents to sign.
2. You will give your escrow agent a cashier’s check representing your closing costs amount.
3. Your mortgage lender’s representative will give your escrow agent a check representing your mortgage loan amount.
4. Your escrow agent will give the seller a check representing his or her portion of the purchase price amount.
5. The seller will sign the warranty deed transferring title from him or her to you and give you the keys to your new home.
6. Your title insurance company representative likely will take possession of the warranty deed so as to get it recorded in your county’s Recorder of Deeds’ office and then return it to you.

Closing costs

You can count on your closing costs amounting to approximately 3% of your mortgage amount. Your mortgage lender likely gave you a Good Faith Estimate of them shortly after you made your purchase offer. (S)he subsequently undoubtedly gave you a HUD-1 Settlement Statement that itemizes the nature and amount of each of your closing costs. You will need to obtain a cashier’s check for the total to give to your escrow agent during your closing.