Please Think About The Closing Date Carefully
The most important date in a real estate contract is the closing date. That’s the day we celebrate and you get your money!
The closing date is one part of the contract that is negotiable between the buyer and seller. Please consider carefully the closing date you are committing to BEFORE signing a contract.
When agreeing to a closing date here are a few things to consider…
- Once a contract is signed the seller does not have the right to change the closing date without the agreement of the buyer.
- The buyer will expect you to have moved out of the house and your home to be clean so they can do a final walk through the afternoon/evening before closing or the morning of closing.
- We recommend closing as soon as possible. Every day closing is pushed back is one more day for the buyer to get cold feet, find out they are getting transferred out of state or any number of life events that might disrupt your sale.
- Our contracts in Texas do not come with a period of time for you to stay in the house after closing. To make your move easier, if you need to stay in your home for a short time after closing we can help negotiate a lease back for you. A lease back needs to be negotiated prior to signing a contract. A lease back will not be possible for every home sale.
- The contract says utilities need to be in your name until after closing. We will remind the buyer to transfer the utilities into their name. Please do not turn off the utilities until your sale is final. If your closing is on a Wednesday please do not schedule utilities to be shut off until Thursday. You may want to pick a closing date not on a Friday to avoid paying for utilities over the weekend.
If you schedule utilities to be shut off on Wednesday and they are turned off before the buyer has done a final walk through you may have to pay to have the utilities turned back on. We recommend not shutting off the utilities until the sale is final in case there is a delay in closing so you do not have to have the utilities turned back on.
Please let me know if you have any questions about the closing date before signing a contract. When you are ready to sell your home, contact Eric Peterson directly at 512-791-7473 or eric@koparealestate.com .