Thursday, December 20, 2012

Things I still don't know

Well, I'm closing on the house in 2 weeks and one day. It seems safe to assume it's really happening! It's weird to me that I can be this close to the deadline and not know some super basic things like:
  • I close on the 4th, but when do I sign the papers?
  • How much will my total closing costs be? 
One person told me that "closing" on the 4th means everything gets signed 24 or more hours before that, but I haven't gotten that confirmed. The title company will come to me and I'm around that week, so I guess I'll just be ready when they tell me to jump.

My mortgage lender says that the escrow people are the ones who come up with the final closing costs so I have to wait to hear it from them.

The majority of my down payment & closing costs is at Vanguard, not at my bank. I guess I'll transfer it all over to my bank sometime next week, so it's ready and waiting to wire whenever I find out where to send it.

I've also started looking at refrigerators, washers, dryers, curtain rods, shower curtains... it's weird to me that I haven't spent enough time in the house to know what color metal (if any) is in the decorative elements of the bathroom, so I don't know what color shower curtain rod to buy. Ditto on any curtains, actually. I guess I just have to spend time there before I can make those decisions - but some will be done sooner than others as I DO want to shower there sooner rather than later!

Aside from two mattresses and a desk chair (and a lot of terrific restaurant meals), I haven't been buying stuff for myself for months. It's going to be really weird to open the floodgates starting in January, though I do intend to do it all mindfully. I don't need that much stuff to get started. What I WANT may be another matter altogether! 


3 comments:

  1. until this post, i would have sworn that "closing" is when you sign the papers. in fact i'm still pretty sure when that is. That's why occupancy is linked to closing - at closing, 2 weeks after closing, etc - it's when the key is handed over. Right?

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  2. Yeah I thought that too. But according to this one person (who could be wrong) closing is when all things have cleared and money has settled, and then keys are handed over. That certainly implies SOME kind of lead time, but what do I know? One friend dimly remembers two sessions of paper signing, the second of which came with a key. All I know is, I wish I'd arranged to have garage access already - there are boxes I could be bringing over!

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  3. I think closing and paper signing depends on the state. This summer we did have to go in over a day early to do all the paperwork signing, and the day of closing we got a call from our realtor with the ok to occupy and the code to the lockbox (the one that every house for sale has to let realtors in for showings) containing the keys. When we bought a house in another state 9 years ago, it worked differently (did a walk-through immediately before closing and signed the papers that day and then got the keys when we were done signing).

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