Does the buyer have to have funds immediately available upon signature at closing and what if they do not. Thank You

does the buyer have to have funds immediately avalable upon signature at closing and what if they do not. Thank You

Usually yes. Usually the mortgage arrangement is already in place, you are at your lawyers and he is going over the outlay in a statement of disbursements, including title searches, deed fees, etc. and giving you the bottom line including his fees, etc. and then you give him a cheque for the amount you owe ON CLOSING. Then you get the keys to your new house and not before.

I do not know of anyone that will close without getting their money, unless they are going to hold a mortgage ( lien) on the home.

For example if I was selling you the home I would want you to pay me a certain amount down ( cash) and I would carry the balance but your down payment had to be there at closing.

Normally if you did not get a loan for the amount and don't have the money, you just don't close, and if you can't close within a good time limit, the deal will fall though

At the closing the buyer generally sits there signing checks. There are checks for fees, checks for the lawyer and title company. Checks for taxes and escrow and finally, the payment to the seller.

There has to be money to cover those checks. Either from the proceeds of the mortgage or money certified in a bank account. Of course you could walk in with a briefcase full of cash, But then there will be questions about money laundering.

Just a minor note: the closings I have done have demanded money orders/certified checks. They weren't going to trust that I had the funds to back a check I wrote at the closing! Which may mean talking to your bank a few days before the closing, since many of them request advance notice if you want a certified check over a certain amount, so that they can verify that you actually have the funds to cover it.

And, if the mortgage hasn't funded, they will just delay the closing until it does.

I will add a silly side note, I tried to do a closing one time with actually cash, they would not accept it.

Just a minor note: the closings I have done have demanded money orders/certified checks. They weren't going to trust that I had the funds to back a check I wrote at the closing! Which may mean talking to your bank a few days before the closing, since many of them request advance notice if you want a certified check over a certain amount, so that they can verify that you actually have the funds to cover it.

And, if the mortgage hasn't funded, they will just delay the closing until it does.

Generally, at a closing where a mortgage is used to pay the seller, a bank representative is there and the checks being made out are not personal checks but checks drawn on the bank. Funds in addition to the amount of the mortgage will need to be either predeposited or certified.

Generally, at a closing where a mortgage is used to pay the seller, a bank representative is there and the checks being made out are not personal checks but checks drawn on the bank. Funds in addition to the amount of the mortgage will need to be either predeposited or certified.

You know, at this point in my life I have bought three houses, and never have had a bank representative there. However, the deal doesn't close until the loan "funds", which I guess means someone from the bank tells the escrow company that "yes, the money's here". So this may just be a quibble about how things are defined.

Frankly, closings are a lot less formal than I always imagined. My first one, I was told I needed to come to the realtor's office and sign some papers. Since this was my first purchase, and I had been signing documents like every other day (offer, counter-offer, demand for repairs, contingency releases, etc.), I figured that I would do that, and then we would hold the closing in two days (when it was scheduled). Went into a room, signed a huge stack of paper, and at the end they said "Congratulations, here's the keys." All rather anti-climatic, actually.

The second time there was actually a board room and attorneys, so slightly more formal. But the seller was out-of-town, so it was just me, my broker, and the escrow agent.

The third time, I met the escrow agent at a McDonald's! It was a half-way point between us.

So, I have learned that these things are not as spooky or formal as you think when you buy your first house.

NY is one of the most miserable states for closings because the banks require that the closings occur in their offices or at the office of their attorney.

I do the majority of my closings in NJ. I have closed in boardrooms, in banks, in attorneys' offices, in diners and once on the floor of a model home.

In NJ the standard practice is that the buyer's attorney determines all of the closing costs and the buyer provides his attorney with a certified check or bank check for the full amount. The attorney then writes out all of the different checks that are required.

In every closing the buyer has always been required to provide all of the funds, in certified form or bank check, at the time of closing. (Once we had a buyer show up with a shopping bag full of cash. Yes, we accepted it.)

OK, all my closings have been in NY, so maybe we are more formal here.