Closing a Real Estate Deal: An Investor’s Guide

Beyond the right property, and the financing to afford it, one thing must happen with each and every real estate deal you invest in. The deal needs to successfully close, so you can take ownership and add it to your portfolio. Closing is more than just agreeing to a price and shaking hands with the seller; there’s a lot of steps, of paperwork and procedure, that go into a real estate closing. It’s common for, especially new, investors to think that after that price is agreed to, the hard part is done and everything will just fall into place. But the closing process can be a complicated hurdle, filled with details that have to be managed and handled. From placing the purchase price into escrow, to title searches, negotiating fees and bringing in inspectors, and more, there are a lot of potential problems that can scuttle a deal no matter how agreeable the price. For this reason, it can be helpful to bring in a real estate attorney to help navigate the process and ensure you get from negotiations to the end of closing without problems cropping up. This litany of checkpoints to tick off during closing is why the closing process takes time, days rather than hours or just a few meetings. It could be as few as three days, which seems long to the uninitiated, but some sales could take months to properly close.