Finding and buying your Florida dream home undoubtedly constitutes one of the best experiences of your life. But if it also represents your first home buying experience, you likely have plenty of questions about your closing.
As the Home Buying Institute explains, your closing date, time and place is the last step in your home buying process. This is when and where full legal title to your new home and property passes from the seller to you.
Closing step by step
Your closing likely will consist of the following six steps:
1. Your escrow agent will present you with several legal documents for you to read and sign.
2. You will give your escrow agent a cashier’s check in the amount of your closing costs.
3. Your mortgage company representative will give your escrow agent a check in the amount of your mortgage loan.
4. Your escrow agent will give the seller a check in the amount of the sale proceeds to which (s)he is entitled.
5. The seller will sign a warranty deed giving you legal title to your new home, and if (s)he has not already done so, give you a set of keys to it.
6. Your title insurance company representative will take possession of the signed warranty deed so that (s)he can get it recorded in the Recorder of Deeds Office prior to returning it to you.
Closing costs
As you may already know, closing costs represent the fees you must pay to the various people and/or organizations who have played a part in your home buying process. You can expect your closing costs to amount to about 3% of your mortgage amount.
Your mortgage company will give you a Good Faith Estimate of what your closing costs will be early on. But then, once these costs have been actually determined and totaled, it will give you a detailed HUD-1 Settlement Statement. You will need to get a cashier’s check from your bank in the amount of this total so you can pay these costs during your closing.
This is general educational information and not intended to provide legal advice.
