If you have decided to purchase a Delaware home, you likely have numerous questions with regard to the home buying process. And a lot of your questions probably have to do with your real estate closing.
What is it? When will it occur? Who all will be there? How should you prepare? The Home Buying Institute explains that your closing represents the last step of your home buying process, the one where you become the new legal owner of your home as title to the house and land passes from its current owner to you.
Closing step by step
When the big day finally arrives, you first will need to sign several legal documents, after which the process goes something like this:
- You give a cashier’s check to the escrow agent in the amount of your closing costs.
- Your mortgage lender gives a check to the escrow agent in the amount of your mortgage.
- The escrow agent gives the seller a check in the amount of the sales proceeds to which (s)he is entitled.
- The seller then executes the warranty deed giving you legal title to the home and gives you a set of keys to it if you do not yet have a set.
- The title insurance company representative assumes possession of the deed so (s)he can get it recorded in the Recorder of Deeds’ office before returning it to you.
And that’s it! You now own your new home.
Closing costs
If you stop and think about it, a lot of people do a lot of work on your behalf between the time you make an offer of purchase and the time you close. Your closing costs represent the amount of the fees and charges associated with this work. You can expect your closing costs to amount to approximately 3% of your mortgage loan.
Your mortgage lender will give you a preliminary Good Faith Estimate of your closing costs and amounts, followed, a few days before your closing, by a HUD-1 Settlement Statement. This document will break down your actual closing costs by type and amount. You will need to get a certified or cashier’s check from your bank in the total closing costs amount so you can take it with you to your closing.
This is general educational information and not intended to provide legal advice.