All Your Paperwork You’ll want to bring proof of homeowners insurance, a copy of your contract with the seller, your home inspection reports, anything the bank required to approve your loan, and a government-issue photo ID. (Note to newlyweds who just changed their name: That ID needs to match the name that will appear on the property’s title and mortgage.)

Your Down Payment You will already know from your disclosure form exactly how much you’ll have to cough up for a down payment and closing costs. Yet since a personal check won’t cut it, be sure to ask before closing whether you should wire transfer those funds or if you’ll need to bring a cashier’s check. Also bring your personal checkbook to closing, since that’s typically fine to pay smaller fees and may come in handy in case any unforeseen expenses crop up.

Review Your Closing Disclosure Form If you’re getting a loan, one of the best ways to prepare is to thoroughly review this statement.

The Closing Disclosure (CD) or settlement statement, outlines your exact mortgage payments, loan’s terms (such as the interest rate and term) and additional fees you’ll pay, called closing costs (which may total anywhere from 2% to 7% of your home’s price). Compare your CD to the CD estimate your lender gave you at the outset; make sure they’re similar and ask your lender to explain any discrepancies.

Thanks to new regulations put in effect in October 2015 known as TRID (which stands for TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure), you should receive your closing disclosure three days before closing so that you have plenty of time to check it over. (Before TRID, home buyers received this form only 24 hours ahead of time, which resulted in a lot more last-minute surprises and holdups.)

Do a Final Walk-Through A buyer’s contract usually allows for a walk-through of the home 24 hours before closing. First and foremost, you’re making sure the previous owner has vacated (unless you’ve allowed a rent-back arrangement where they can stick around for a period of time before moving). Second, make sure the home is in the condition agreed upon in the contract. If you had a home inspection done earlier and it revealed problems that the sellers had agreed to fix, make sure those repairs were made.

If you find an issue during your walk-through, bring it up with the sellers as soon as possible. There’s no need to panic; at worst you can simply delay the closing until you resolve it.

The Basic Title Insurance Owner’s Policy protects you from defects and liens in the history of your title through the date and time your deed is recorded in the public records.

Enhanced Title Insurance Owner’s Policy provides expanded title coverage for owners of one-to-four family residences, including condominiums. Read more on the differences and compare policies - More Info

Heritage Title would like everyone to know that we are doing our best to ensure the safety of everyone involved with our office. We take the health and safety of our clients, customers, staff, and visitors very seriously. We are still open for business and we are able to operate somewhat normally. We are following the federal guidelines to help ensure the safety of everyone that comes to our office. We are taking the following steps:

• We are asking that all visitors use hand sanitizer (provided by us) upon arrival.
• We request that only signors attend closings in our office during this time.
• We are requesting that real estate agents and loan officers speak to their clients ahead of closing and/or may call into the office during the scheduled closing time. Conference calls or Facetime video are options between you and your client. This is consistent with the guidelines to minimize contact.
• We will send commission checks via FedEx at no extra charge. Please contact us with the address for your FedEx delivery. Additionally, checks can be picked up in the office (please call us in advance to schedule your pickup so we have it ready and disbursed with minimal contact).
• We will be providing the option for sellers to sign documents prior to buyers at their scheduled time and buyers may, if they prefer, wait in their vehicle until being called into the office when their portion of the closing is ready to sign. This will help eliminate larger groups within the same room and lobby. We will offer this procedure whenever possible.
• We are asking all parties to take the pen that they are using during settlement and we are putting fresh pens out for each settlement.
• After settlement, we are wiping down rooms with disinfectant.
• We are frequently sanitizing door handles, handrails, bathroom, etc.

Our staff is working together to keep the business running as normal as possible. We ask for your understanding if your scheduled closing runs slightly overdue to additional precautionary steps we are taking to keep everyone safe.

We will continue to review recommendations by Federal and Local health agencies, and policies will be updated if the situation changes. If we receive any news that will hinder us from being able to conduct closings, we will notify all upcoming settlements that could be affected by phone and announce updates through social media, email, and/or our secured portal.

As of now, we will continue to conduct business as normal while providing additional safety measures for everyone. We will all need to be understanding and work together to get through these hard times.

The proliferation of fraud and business email compromise continues to pose a significant threat to businesses worldwide. The FBI indicates this fraud represents over $5 billion in reported losses to businesses just like yours.

We take your security seriously and intend to inform you whenever threats of this nature arise. We also ask that you remain vigilant and thoroughly investigate any request to gather information, and remember that Heritage Title does not accept changes to wire information via unencrypted email. Fraudsters have become adept at impersonating executives and trusted partners and often use the anonymity of email to communicate with you.

If you receive communication regarding wiring instructions and unsure or feel uneasy about the contents of the email, please call our office to verify. Reminder that all communications of this nature will be done within our secured Qualia portal.