The good news is that I have clients closing on properties. I've had one a week for a bit and I expect two more this week.
The bad news is that it's like giving birth. Everything is a strain.
And, except in one case, it's not the banks. It's the "cogs" as the alternative title suggests. Those cogs just aren't working well. They need some grease, and what that grease is I have no idea.
The banks have for the most part come through. One is giving problems but that's a direct result of the owners not signing the contract quickly before all mortgage issues went haywire this summer. The mortgage people have been spectacular, doing what needs to be done quickly. Maybe they are more attuned to the markets and know speed is necessary.
The cogs are all the people involved in a transaction. The agents start the process and turn it over to attorneys and mortgage handlers. The attorneys order the surveys and the mortgage people order the appraisals. Reports are generated, abstracts are updated, and we go to closing.
But it's breaking down somewhere. A cash deal I had took two months to close while a Nehemiah loan - they still did them until the end of September - is due to close this week after only a month. In both these cases the surveyor was not on the same page as the rest of us and we are stopped. The owners are complaining, the buyers are complaining and I am complaining to the attorneys who refuse to tell me who the surveyors are because I would no doubt complain to them!
And here we sit - all my people who are ready to move, who have worked hard to make it all happen for themselves and their opposite numbers.
Thank goodness it is like childbirth and the pain will be less after closing, but not forgotten.
I don't want to stop writing and leave the impression that it's always the surveyors. It's definitely not - everyone takes turns being the difficult cog. And not all closings go this way - it just seems as if there is an inordinate number of delays recently. I think we all have our eyes on the market. Some, perhaps, more than others.
