On Sun, 17 Jun 2007 17:05:15 -0700, Tim Smith
wrote:
In article , dpb wrote:
I presume that you have an attorney representing you for the closing. I
That's a regional thing, so depends on where they are. In many parts of
the country, an attorney is usually not used for closing.
That's a personal mistake thing, not necessarily regional...biggest
investment most people make in their lives and they wing it...to save a
few hundred bucks, maybe. 
Who said anything about winging it? The title company in most of the
western US handles closing. There would be no point in bringing a
lawyer. Here's how it works.
The title company receives all the paperwork from the mortgage company,
and arranges for the seller to come in and sign all the documents the
seller needs to sign.
When this is done, the title company notifies the buyer, and tells the
buyer the size of the cashiers check he needs to bring (or the amount of
money the buyer needs to wire to the title company, if he prefers that
option), and makes an appointment for the buyer to come in.
The buyer comes in, and signs all the relevant documents and hands in
the check.
The title company goes and files the deed for the buyer (and for most of
us, the other document that gives the lender their interest in the
property), and then notifies the real estate agent the buyer is dealing
with. The buyer can then go pick up the keys from the agent.
(I say "title company" above, but I suppose technically it is the escrow
company for much of it, but they are usually the same company).
Not every state has escrow.
I've only bought one house, but I don't see how one can count on the
title company to represent the buyer's interest, except the one
interest that affects the title company, which is establishing good
title.
I don't see how or why they would concern themselves with cabinets and
refrigerators, which have no effect on whether the house is sold or
not.
The title company sends a lawyer or whatever to protect its own
interests. He usually takes charge because there is no one there with
more training and experience. Even if there is a seller or buyer's
lawyer there, I would guess the title company's lawyer takes charge
because he is comparitively neutral. The buyer doesn't want a neutral
lawyer. He wants one on his side.
That doesn 't necessarily mean -- I don't know -- if he needs to have
his lawyer there. If he can't get the kitchen the way it should be,
he should as someone said, discuss this with a lawyer in advance. I
would think a lawyer near the house. He can fax or email the relevant
papers, adn do it on the phone. This can even be cheaper maybe
conceivably because there is less likely to be time spent
chitchatting, which my mother was wont to do.
The lawyer probably will want to come to the closing, I think, because
it earns him income, and because he will be honestly afraid something
bad will happen if he is not there, that will be harder to undo than
to avoid.
OTOH I hired a lawyer when I bought my house, and he was terrible,
even though I got him through a recommendation of someone I still
respect. He gave me a flat price, which I failed to ask enough
questions about, and after it was over, and I noticed I had no title
insurance, he told me his price didn't include title insurance and I
didn't need it. Even though it was a property subdivided only 4 years
earlier, and many of the lots were unusual shapes, and mine was one of
the most unusual. In fact the subdivision as a whole had had a title
dispute with the next subdivisioin, and it turned out we or they had
built on the other's property. A deal was worked out where we kept
the property our developer had wrongly built on, and we gave them some
of our vacant land. We're so packed, I'm surprised we could find
vacant land next to their land to give them. OTOH, maybe that's a
reason we're so packed. I have no idea how much land was invovled.
The one thing that was dubious at my settlement was whehter we were
properly apportioning the oil in the oil tank or the electric bill or
something like that. And I noticed this before my lawyer did. I
wonder if I hadn't said anything if he would have noticed it at all.
ON a new house I guess that's not an issue, although maybe the builder
has to pay the electric bill until the house is acctuallly sold, and
maybe that can be 100 dollars or so?
I should have been suspicious when the lawyer had his office in a
lower income part of town. But he had a recommendation and his first
advice on the phone, on an easy but acute topic, sounded good, and was
good if the mortgage agent hadn't been a dirtball.
Here's a list of how closings are handled in each state:
http://www.owners.com/Tools/Library/ShowArticle/24.aspx
Note that the are sometimes significant variations within a state. Look
at California for example.