Read the settlement statement when it arrives
Check the price, credits, and payoff on the statement the day you receive it.
The statement is the math of the sale. Read it the day it arrives, not in the lobby. Start with four lines: the sale price, the payoff, the credits you agreed to, and the amount you are supposed to receive. If any of those is missing, ask the closing office which page it is on before you assume the deal got simpler. A missing credit is not a gift. It may be on another page.
Compare those lines with your net page and the signed offer. Circle anything that does not match. A credit you never agreed to, a payoff that does not match the quote in your folder, or a proceeds number you cannot rebuild from the lines above it all get a circle. Do the arithmetic on paper. If you cannot get from the price to the proceeds with the lines they printed, you are not ready to sign.
Call the closing office about a mismatch before the appointment. Bring the circled page and the signed page that disagrees with it. Ask them to explain the line in a sentence you can write down, and ask for a revised statement if the line was wrong. A correction in the lobby is harder, and it is easier to initial something you do not understand when people are waiting. The phone call is the appointment that matters.
Check the prorations and the dates while you have the file open. A tax or association line should match the dates in the contract closely enough that you can see why it is that amount. If you cannot see why, circle it too. File the final statement in the closing folder when it matches, and carry that copy with you. The version on your screen the night before is not a substitute for the pages you will initial.
What to do
- Read the price, payoff, credits, and your proceeds the day the statement arrives.
- Circle lines that do not match the contract or that you cannot rebuild.
- Ask about those lines before closing day, with the signed page in hand.
- Carry the matching statement to the appointment.