When you enter into a real estate contract, one of the things the buyer and seller must agree upon is a closing date. And this closing date is set in stone when it comes to Arizona real estate contracts. The reason for this is because people’s lives are hanging in the balance. Although I tell my clients never to find themselves in this situation, sometimes there are moving trucks literally sitting in the driveway! Unfortunately there are many things that can cause a closing to be delayed though.
More often than not if there is a delay it is because of the buyer’s financing. There are a lot of hoops that need to get jumped through to get a home loan these days. After all, the banks are still stinging from their eagerness to give home loans a few years ago. Buyers have to provide all kinds of documentation to get a loan these days. And gathering this documentation can take time. Long gone are the days of the banks checking to see if you have a pulse and then giving you a home loan!
Sometimes the delays are caused by the lenders themselves though. The banks that are realizing financial losses have had to cut staff. Ask anyone that works in the mortgage division at Bank of America or Wells Fargo, and they will tell you that they are swamped right now! And it may get worse too. Now the Truth In Lending Act just went under some changes that will require the lenders to jump through more hoops that will include waiting periods.
