Of the closings our firm deals with, between 70-80% happen on the 1st of the month, the 15th of the month or the last day of the month or on Fridays. These are popular dates because the line up nicely with leases that are coming to an end, and when you take possession of your new home on a Friday you have all weekend to move and set up your new home.
However, I would encourage clients to look at other dates for a few reasons:
- If there is an delay your Friday closing, the law firms are closed closed for the next two days. In our experience, most issue are resolved within 1 or 2 business days. However, when you close on a Friday, that means there are actually 4-5 days before things gets sorted out. If you picked a Friday before a long weekend, it is actually 5-6 days. If you are selling this means 4 or 5 more days before you get your money (and more days of interest you pay on your mortgage). When you are buying, this means you may need to find temporary living spaces for a whole weekend rather than just overnight.
- Avoid this issue by closing on Wednesdays or Thursdays.
- First and last days of the month are problematic because you are going to be one of many closings at the law firm. This means the paralegals and lawyers have more on their plate, and therefore less time to focus on your file. While a good real estate firm is capable of completing many closings on a single day, your file will close a little faster if you are one of the only files that day.
- The solution – Pick a closing date between the 25- 28 or 3-6 of the month, instead of the 1 or 30/31.
- Picking very popular dates might mean your first choice for a law firm is actually too busy that day to take your file. While this is not a common issue, we have had various periods over this past summer where we simply cannot take new files in order to give our existing clients the attention they need.
- The solution – give your law firm a call before you set a closing date and see what date they recommend for you.