Thirty Days
is Long Enough for Mortgage Closing - By
J.D. Crowe
It seems as
though real estate professionals are being conditioned to think that the
standard term of 30 days is not sufficient to get financing in place. This
most likely has been proliferated by the lack of service available in the
lending industry today.
Not only has
there been a huge decrease in the number of mortgage lenders, as we pointed out
in a recent column, but many of the ones that
are left do not have the operational systems or personnel to handle the volume
that is being delivered. And we are just beginning to see signs of a
recovering real estate market. Based on the huge depreciation in value and the
pent-up demand caused by the length and depth of the recession, more real
estate contracts will be written and the delays in mortgage loan processing
time are about to increase across the board.
“The lender today is out of step with the
transaction,” said Charlie Ragonesi of All Mountain Realty in Jasper, Georgia.
“I would say that this happens about 50 percent of the time. We do work with
good lenders who come through. But until lenders get back to loaning where they
were pre bubble we will never see a housing rebound. When we
bought our first house in New York City, it took 60 days to close. When we
moved to Georgia the lenders laughed that it took so long in New York. Well
guess what? Georgia is now 45-60 days even for loans that are 100 percent no
problem.”
It is very
arrogant of the mortgage industry to think that it should be able to dictate
the timeframe of a real estate contract rather than doing whatever it takes to
meet the terms provided in the contract. It is commonplace today to hear a
real estate professional’s cynical view of the closing date. If you ask
many of them, I bet that they will tell you they miss closing dates more often
than they make them because the lender was not able to deliver a loan package
in the timeframe set by the contract.
At Southeast
Mortgage we have always delivered on our promise to close within the terms of
the contract and it is our goal in every instance to be ready to close in eight
days, whether that is needed or not. Real estate professionals need to
know that there are still mortgage companies that understand how this industry
should operate — that the client comes first and that service is still
paramount.
As Brad
Feiman, Team Leader Keller Williams Atlanta Perimeter, said, “Thirty day
closings are pretty standard in our industry and that is what many buyers
want. If a mortgage company can’t get it done in 30 days, buyers and
agents will move on to a mortgage company that can.”
Call: 770-279-0222
1 comment:
I guess that is fair. It seems like that's an ample amount of time for
mortgage companies to figure everything out. No more games, I say!
mortgages are tricky enough as is!
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