I'm speaking in terms of loans, closings and houses here but the important thing to remember is that each loan, each closing, each house has a person attached to it. A person waiting to move in. A person who is making a major investment and a person, I believe, deserves an on-time closing.
I'm keeping score because I want our future buyers to know what they can expect from our preferred lender and to know what our past buyers experienced with outside lenders.
Our one and only on-time closing so far came courtesy of our preferred lender, Brad Arendt at Prime Lending. The interesting part about this loan was the fact that the buyer was out of the country for 3 wks leading up to closing and Brad's team needed something from the buyer last minute. Some lenders would have thrown their hands in the air...tried to delay closing 'just in case' but Brad & Kathryn (she's Brad's right hand and pretty much the wizard behind the curtain over there) got it done.
Our second closing was delayed due to an outside lender error. Internal review took longer than they expected. They had to push out the closing a few days. That buyer deserved to move in on time.
Our third closing was supposed to happen yesterday. A different outside lender. This time it was an appraisal report that came back 'subject to completion'-the appraiser said the house was incomplete because the utilities were not on...yet somehow the buyer, the buyers' agent and builder walked the house the day before the appraisal, with all the utilities turned on. A new appraisal was still required before the house could close. Another buyer the deserved to move in on time. [a message from future A$: this one closed on the 30th]
Our fourth closing is scheduled for Tuesday. The loan package is already waiting at the attorney's office courtesy of our preferred lender. The funny part...I accepted this contract on January 13th and called Brad & Kathryn asking for a January 31st closing. A mere 12 business days away. After they stopped laughing, and verified it was a conventional loan, they told me we'd go for it. [a message from future A$: this one closed on time!]
The bar is high around here on most things...but especially on closing dates. If we're going to guarantee our closing dates and back it up with a $1000 in additional closing costs if we miss that date, then we expect our lending partners to do the same. Our preferred lender, Brad Arendt at Prime Lending backs up his closing dates. If he misses a date, he pays the additional $1000 in closing costs. He's had to do this ZERO times but still, it's there because Brad agrees with us that buyers deserve on time closings.
