By Living Room Realty, April 5, 2018
I always tell my customers that one of the keys for a successful transaction is to hire a good team: a good agent, a good title officer and, yes… a good lender. A good lender can make the difference between having your offer accepted or rejected, stress or no stress and, most importantly, between closing or not closing,
An offer accompanied by a pre-approval letter from a reputable lender can make wonders to its appeal. If well advised by their agent, sellers will automatically feel at ease if the buyer’s lender is trustworthy, communicates promptly and proactively and gives assurances to close on time. When sellers are looking at offers, they want to maximize their profits, but most importantly, they wan to have certainty that that offer will end up in a successful closing and a good lender can mean assurance to accomplish that outcome.
For buyers, teaming with a lender that explains the requirements clearly and manages the expectations of the process ahead provides ease and minimizes stress. Of course, it is important that your lender can offer competitive interest rates, but many good lenders will do their best to match other rates and terms. Ultimately, it comes down to closing for buyers too, a lender can offer a very low rate, but will he/she be able to close the transaction? That’s what matters at the end.
Closing on time is critical in a transaction. Parties make arrangements based on the “sacred” closing date, organize moving, complete payoffs, arrange closing on next home purchases with sellers that may need to close on their next purchase, creating a domino chain reaction easy to disrupt if that original closing date is compromised. A good lender, will move heaven and earth to close on time and, if that is not possible, he/she will communicate promptly about the challenges ahead and the estimated new timelines, so parties can react and re-schedule their commitments before it is too late.
Why am I writing this article? Well, I just closed a transaction 3 weeks after the agreed closing date. That created incredible stress and extra expense on everyone involved. Fortunately, the transaction did not fall through because seller and buyers were both committed. However, what could have been an easy and happy transaction, became a nightmare of uncertainty and frustration, all because the lender did not do his homework, did not communicate proactively and was simply unprofessional.
Please work always with a good lender. If you don’t know anyone you trust, ask your agent, she/he will give you advice based on successful past experiences.
I hope this helps!
