How Long Does it Take to Close on a House? Article
It takes at least 30 days and at most 60 days to close on a house. The average closing of a house purchase was 51 days in June 2021.
The period of time between when the buyer signs the contract with the seller and the closing date is called escrow. The escrow period can take as little as a month. On the first day, the buyer will sign the contract and confirm a closing date. Then the buyer will need to open an escrow account, or a savings account the bank puts money into in order to pay for property taxes and mortgage premiums. Opening an escrow account will take a few days. Next, the previous owners will need to make repairs and the seller or relator will need to complete an inspection, which will take one to two weeks. Then comes the appraisal of the house, which will take another one to two weeks. The buyers will need to acquire homeowner’s insurance and title insurance, which should take a day. Get a loan approval, which should take another day. Do a final walkthrough and attend your closing appointment to fill out any more paperwork. All of this will take a month or two to complete.
The house repairs may take longer than expected and can extend the closing date by weeks or months. If the house is appraised lower or higher than the buyer thought, then they will have to re-negotiate a new price with the seller.
There may be a few delays that can extend the home buying process. A mortgage loan can lengthen the process by taking an average of 49 days to go through or file, while the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loan can take up to 51 days. If the buyers are first-time homeowners, then it will take longer for the mortgage loan to process since there are stricter requirements. Their credit profile may be poor or need re-evaluation, so it may take some time to get pre-approved. Another buyer may make a higher counteroffer and a bidding war may ensue, so the potential buyers will keep making higher offers until they go over their budget. This can extend the process for weeks or even months.
On the closing date, there will have a lot of legal documents that will need to be filled out for the bank and realtor, which can take a few hours.
There are a lot of complications that can occur when waiting to close on a house, but it will all be worth it when they can move in and make it a home.
Works Cited
https://www.rocketmortgage.com/learn/time-to-close-on-a-house.
https://www.zillow.com/home-buying-guide/how-long-does-it-take-to-close-on-a-house/.
https://static.elliemae.com/pdf/origination-insight-reports/EM_OIR_NOVEMBER2020.pdf
