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A closing is the crowning moment of a real estate transaction, the time during which the title to a property is passed over from the property seller to the buyer and the keys handed over to the buyer, the new owner of the property.
A real estate transaction closing requires signing of various documents, which are sometimes quite voluminous. Participants in a closing in the State of Florida may include the buyer of the property, the seller of the property, the buyer´s real estate agent, the seller´s real estate agent, the buyer´s real estate attorney, the seller´s real estate attorney, a mortgage loan officer, and a closing agent.
The role of the closing agent is to check over the final purchase agreement and to figure out what payment amounts are due to whom and payable by whom. The closing agent also is responsible for conducting the closing meeting; ensuring that taxes, title insurance, and any fees or commissions are paid; ensuring that the seller is paid the balance of the purchase price of the property after all fees and costs have been deducted; and ensuring that the legal title which is transferred to the buyer at closing is recorded.
In some situations, it may not be possible for a buyer or a seller to a real property transfer to be present at the closing. Long-distance closings are a possible alternative in Florida. In a long-distance closing, the absent party is represented at the closing by his or her agent, attorney, or other representative. The party signs the necessary documents and transfers them to the closing agent via fax or overnight mail. Funds are transferred via electronic fund transfer ("wiring"). Once the closing agent has received all necessary signed documents and has ascertained that everything is in legal order, he or she will proclaim the closing official.
Among the documents that are required to be signed in order to close on a parcel of Florida real estate are:
· A buyer´s funding check, which is the check issued to a buyer by his or her lending institution, payable to the buyer or jointly to the buyer and the closing agent; the buyer must endorse the check over to the closing agent so that fees and costs may be paid and the balance can be paid to the property seller
· A closing statement, also referred to as a "HUD-1 settlement statement," which is a complete list of all costs that are involved in the closing, including any earnest money paid by the buyer of the property to the seller, closing costs, fees or commissions owed to the respective real estate agents, any other fees and costs, and the final amount due to the property seller
· A mortgage, which is the document that installs a claim upon the property, held by the lending institution as a security for the money borrowed by the buyer for the purchase of the property
· A mortgage note, which is a promissory note that is secured by the mortgage, a personal promise by the buyer in the real estate transaction to pay the full amount of the loan plus applicable interest back to the lending institution in the time specified in the mortgage agreement
· Miscellaneous other documents
The buyer´s ownership of the property in question is official at the transfer of title to the property, which takes ownership formerly belonging to the seller and bestows it upon the property buyer. Title transfer is accomplished by the occurrence of two events.
The first event is the delivery of payment by the buyer, which is typically in the form of a check or, in the case of a long-distance closing, wire funds that are provided by the buyer´s lending institution in the amount of the loan.
The second event is the delivery of the deed of property, which is the document that memorializes the legal transfer of ownership of the real property from the seller to the buyer; the deed must include the names of the buyer and seller, a legal description of the property being transferred, and must be signed by the seller, with a notarization and two witnesses.
GBrey
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