Have you ever missed a deadline?  Ever had to ask a teacher for extra time to finish an important assignment because you’re appendix ruptured and you missed class due to emergency surgery?  Ever had to ask your boss for extra time because one of your critical vendors’ cargo ships sank during a hurricane and your order is now at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean?  Ever heard your general contractor say that your kitchen remodel is running behind because your cabinets were on that ship that sank?

While the preceding scenarios may never have happened to you, you can certainly relate to the unexpected curve ball that has thrown you off track somewhere along your life’s journey.  This is true for a real estate transaction as well.  Just because the purchase contract you signed specifies a date for the close of escrow, that piece of paper cannot prevent the unexpected from throwing your close of escrow off track.  So when the unexpected and unwelcomed happens and your close of escrow date slips, what do you do?

Quite simply, when something has set your close of escrow past the contracted date, it’s best to rally as a team, and look for cooperative ways to set a new close of escrow date, and mitigate any harm or damage to any of the parties involved.  Remember – buyers and sellers – you are on the same page at this point!  You both want to get this done, someone just needs a little more time!  Those cooperative ways include but are not limited to the following.

• Adopt the attitude of cooperation, not combat. Work to understand what exactly is needed or what is stopping the close of escrow.  Then look for creative solutions. This attitude of cooperation applies not only to the buyers and sellers, and their agents, but to the lenders’ underwriter, loan funder, loan supervisor, title officer, and escrow officer. 
•       Give the other side the time they need to get their part of the deal done. When you can see the light at the end of the home sale tunnel, have the patience to see it to the end.  If this means re-scheduling your moving truck, extending your loan lock on the home you’re buying with the proceeds from your sale, or extending the close of escrow on your next home, see what the easiest and most cost effective way there is to get it done. 
•       Be a part of the solution. Can you employ the services of a mobile notary to expedite signing the loan documents?  Would a Specific Power of Attorney, which gives someone else the power to sign loan documents on behalf of the buyers in their absence, like when they’re in the hospital recovering from emergency appendectomy surgery, work to trim some time off the clock?
•       Consider all players.  Including the title rep who receives the wire transfer and releases the transaction to record; the underwriter who has the power to move a loan condition from a pre-doc condition to a pre-funding condition; and the bank teller who can expedite the wire transfer your funds to close escrow in time to hit when you need the money just to name a few.

Think the best and not the worst and look for ways to close escrow as soon as possible.  Winner-winner chicken dinner.

I'm Leslie Eskildsen, Realtor.

Call me. Text me.  949-678-3373

Email me. Leslie@LeslieEskildsen.com

Helping you make the right move in Mission Viejo, Coto de Caza, Rancho Santa Margarita, Irvine, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Hills, San Juan Capistrano, San Clemente, Laguna Beach, Newport Beach, Dana Point, Corona Del Mar, and other Orange County communities.