How to Make Sure your Buyer can Close

So you just received the fax from the listing agent and you’re excited because your buyer’s offer was accepted.

Now there’s only one thing standing between you and your hard earned commission, closing.

Will the buyer follow through or bail and embarrass you?

That is the question.

Here’s how to make sure you’re not sadly disappointed on closing day:

 

Verify Funds

In these days a “pre qualification letter” isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.

The day the bank or mortgage company printed your buyers “approval letter” may have been before the big shopping spree over their birthday weekend hit their credit report and ruined everything.

As such, changes happen in the several weeks leading up to a property closing.

This is why you have to take the initiative and verify the funds by following up personally with your buyer’s mortgage broker and requesting a formal “loan commitment letter”.

If they cannot produce this document with ease for your buyer then you should expect “something” will prevent your closing from taking place.

Also, make sure that the commitment letter bears the name of the actual bank or lender that will be funding the deal, NOT the broker who is only a middleman.

 

Know your buyer

Seriously, what do you know about your buyer?  How did they find you in the first place?

Was it a referral from another highly regarded client?

Did they screen themselves through your website?

If so the chances are higher that they are actually qualified and will follow through with closing.

However, if you’re not familiar with them and you don’t know them well you should seek to understand some things about them that could be a red flag for closing.

For example did they mention any problems with a bad divorce or custody issues with children?

These types of concerns have a way of showing up as last minute stipulations and can be a deal breaker and a closing show stopper.

 

Now it’s over to you.

How do you make sure your buyer can close?