Clear to Close – Get it in Writing Before You Waive the Mortgage Contingency
“Clear to close.”
These are the words we await when a house or condo wends its way to closing when a loan is involved. And in the current market what we know to be true is simply “it ain’t over ’til it’s over.”
Last week on Friday morning my buying clients received a verbal “clear to close.” Fortunately our very astute attorney refused to waive our mortgage contingency until what had been verbalized was in writing. Shaped by the notion that a verbal contract isn’t worth the paper it’s not written on, the decision to maintain the contingency was fortuitous as an 11th hour credit check the lender ran revealed a previously undetected collection that had a catastrophic impact on my clients’ credit report. Not just a ding this caused their score to plummet capriciously and resulted in the loss of the loan.
Rats! In 10 years I had never encountered this kind of funding implosion. Things looked about as grim as possible though my clients’ skilled mortgage broker held out hope that he could pull a funding rabbit out of his hat.
And indeed he did. Working in house at Perl Mortgage he was able to get mortgage insurance and lined up a loan that will close next Wednesday. And thus from the ashes does rise Phoenix. And my clients with a two-year-old and a lease that ends at the end of the month are lined up to move into their new home in the Blaine School District in Lakeview.
As I look at the paragraphs above it seems so elementary. In truth the process was very touch-and-go with the seller’s attorney and broker adopting a line in the sand mentality that threatened to cancel the deal, rebuffing the mortgage broker initially as he requested a brief extension to get his ducks in a row.
Oddly the seller was a client of the mortgage broker. He had processed several loans for her and her sister. And when she checked the status yesterday and he explained where we were she proved much more amenable to granting the needed extension than the folks working for her. I am not sure what the disconnect was, but with the brief extension she provided again we got word that the loan was “clear to close.”
And fortunately this time it is in writing.
The point of all of this is that there was a fundamental matrix of professional assistance coming from the Chicago real estate professional, me, our attorney, Dina DeLaurentis, and our mortgage broker, Dan Fogel.
Working together the three of us were able to present an effective, informed and professional front that best served the needs of our client, protected their interests and brought us to what appears will be a successful purchase of a condo in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood.
As always, any questions are welcome. My direct line is 773.848.9241. Or contact me via this form.
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