The two minutes that matter most
Phone the title company or closing attorney, on a number you already had, and verify the wire instructions verbally.
Not a number from the email. Not a number in the signature block of the email. A number from the contract, or from an earlier call you made.
Real estate wire fraud is organised, well informed and precisely timed. The emails carry the right names, the right file number and the right amount, and they arrive at exactly the moment you are expecting them — usually because someone’s email account in the chain has been compromised and the criminals have been reading the thread for weeks. The money moves offshore within hours and is essentially never recovered.
Treat any last-minute change to wire instructions as fraud until proven otherwise. Legitimate last-minute changes are rare. Fraudulent ones are common.
The final walkthrough is a deadline, not a formality
It is the last moment at which a problem is cheap. After the deed transfers, everything in the house is yours, including whatever the seller broke carrying a wardrobe down the stairs.
Do it after the seller has moved out, as close to closing as you can. Then actually operate things rather than looking at them:
- Run every appliance, at least briefly
- Run every tap and flush every toilet
- Turn on both the heating and the cooling
- Try every light
- Open the garage door with every remote
- Look at the walls, floors, door frames and stair rails for move-out damage
If something is wrong, photograph it and raise it in writing immediately. The available remedies — delaying, holding money in escrow, a credit at closing — all exist right up until the transfer and none of them exist afterwards.
Read the Closing Disclosure properly
You are entitled to it three business days before closing, and that window exists precisely so you can compare it against the Loan Estimate.
Read it line by line. Any figure that moved is a question worth asking, and the answer is sometimes “that was an error”. After signing, the same question is an expensive conversation.
At the table, check the boring things
Almost every problem discovered later at a closing table was visible on the document at the time:
Your name — spelled correctly, and identically on every document
The property address and the legal description
The loan amount, the rate and the term
The final figures against the Closing Disclosure
Nobody at that table is in a hurry that matters more than this. Slowing down costs nothing until you sign, and everything afterwards.
Collect copies of everything you signed before you leave, and count the keys, remotes, fobs, garage codes and alarm codes you were given.
Change the locks before the first night
The single most common thing new owners postpone and the one that takes an hour.
You do not know how many keys exist, who has them, or which contractor kept one. Rekeying is inexpensive and it is the first thing to do with a house you now own — before the boxes, before anything.
While you are there: find the water shutoff, the electrical panel and the gas valve, photograph all three, and put the photos somewhere both adults in the household can reach without asking the other one.
If you are selling
Three things people get wrong in the same order every time:
- Do not cancel the insurance on the closing date. Cancel it once the sale has actually funded. The gap is where a catastrophe becomes uninsured.
- Cancel the utilities effective the day after closing, not on the day. A house with no power on closing day is a delayed closing.
- Confirm the funds have arrived before you leave. Not that they have been sent.
Then leave the manuals, the warranties, the spare keys, the remotes and a note about which day the bins go out. It costs nothing and it is remembered.
Ask about a homestead exemption before you forget. Most states that offer one require an application, there is a deadline, and the saving repeats every year for as long as you own the house.