Your dream home is under contract and the Closing date is set.  Congratulations!  Is the closing on a Monday?  Is your closing at the beginning or the end of the month?  Here’s what to know about closing dates in St. Louis from an experienced real estate broker.

Days of the week

I tend to set closing dates for Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, especially when I am working as a buyer’s agent.  I have reasons.  If you are a buyer with a Friday afternoon Close, what happens if you don’t fund the close?  You don’t move into your new house over the weekend.  As a real estate agent, I want happy buyers.  A home buyer isn’t going to be thrilled closing on a house on Friday when the loan isn’t funded until Monday morning, as they won’t be able to use that weekend to move in.  Mondays are also tricky.  Usually, the final numbers on the closing statement get tabulated up until the last possible day available.  In this case, that would be Friday, as title companies are closed on the weekends.  If the closing statement doesn’t balance out on Friday, it’s not going to get done until Monday.  When you have a closing at 9 a.m. on a Monday, you are making a bet that everything went perfectly on the previous Friday.  That’s not a bet that I want to take.

Keeping Holidays In Mind When Writing An Offer

To me, it’s important to also look at typical bank holidays when writing an offer to purchase a home in the first place.  Let’s say you want to close in 30 days.  There is a lot of stuff that is going to need to be done in a very particular order to close on time.  Think about it like this.  Assume you have 10 days to conduct a home inspection by contract.  You now have 20 days left right?  Well, yes and no.  If you have to go back and forth on an inspection notice, let’s assume 10 days, you now have 10 calendar days left to have the seller make repairs.  The 21^st day is usually buyer loan commitment, and you just got the inspection contingency cleared day 20.  There’s no reason to chance missing a loan commitment, so what do you do?  Check for holidays in your closing calendar.  If you get a 4^th of July, or Memorial Day in there, best to move loan commitment and closing out when writing an offer.

First Of The Month, End Of The Month

Let’s say you want to close at the first of the month and it’s on a Tuesday and the last day of the month is on a Monday.  Which day is better for your closing?  It’s going to be the Tuesday.  It would be best to avoid the Monday close whenever possible.  For the most part, title companies are always busier on this magical first of the month end of the month situations.

Real Estate Seasons In St. Louis

Did you know that real estate transactions are highly seasonal in St. Louis? It is very correlated to the school year.  There are piques of interest in late November, early March, and then again in mid-June .  The busiest times for title companies are June and July, so ask yourself?  Do I really want to try and close on July 1 on a Monday before 4^th of July?  You might.  I would prefer we move the closing to after the 4^th holiday.  Depending on when the 4^th happens, you could be losing 2 to 4 days on holidays when title companies are already short on time.  That puts a happy closing in jeopardy, and I don’t see why you would want to do it.

Are You A Rule Breaker?

I’ll never forget the time I was asked if I follow real estate rules.  Let’s say you don’t care about bettering the chances for a solid closing, you want to close on a day I recommended against.  Will I put up an argument?  I would say probably not.  I’m speaking to more general thoughts on closing days.  Your situation may be different.  Whatever the case, keep your closing dates in mind as you work through the real estate home buying experience.

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