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- Lender Steps What Not to Do Before Closing on a House: Credit, Cash, Jobs A $200 car payment can pass unnoticed and a $412 one re-opens the file. The thresholds your lender re-checks before the note date, and the rule behind each.
- Inspections & Findings How to Read a Home Inspection Report: What Deficient Means The Texas report form says the inspector is not required to prioritize one deficiency over another. Three other documents do that sorting, and they agree.
- The Contract Waiving Contingencies When Buying a House: What You Give Up There is no waiver form. In four state contracts the giving-up is a blank, an unfilled fee, or the letters N/A — and each one has a different price.
- Contingencies & Deadlines Due Diligence Period Real Estate: What to Order, and When A ten-day due diligence period does not hold ten working days. Subtract the lender's fee restriction and the lab clocks, then order in this sequence.
- Closing Costs Line by Line Property Taxes Prorated at Closing: The Math The proration line shows a date range and an amount and no arithmetic. Two worked closings, one arrears county and one prepaid, rebuild it to the cent.
- Title, Survey & Escrow Property Survey Before Closing: Encroachments When to order the survey, who pays for it, and what happens to your closing when the plat shows the neighbor's fence two feet inside your line.
- Deals That Fell Apart Earnest Money Dispute: The Four Ways It Ends Terminating the contract and releasing the deposit are two separate signatures, and the second has a 7-day clock, a 15-day clock, and a courthouse behind it.
- The Contract Seller Disclosures: What Unknown and a Blank Mean Five states, five different forms, and on the federal lead attachment there is no box for 'I don't know'. What each answer commits a seller to.
- Closing Week Final Walkthrough Checklist: What to Do at 4 p.m. The walkthrough verifies promises the contract already made. What three state forms actually give you, and the four moves left when something is wrong at 4 p.m.
- Closing Costs Line by Line Closing Costs Explained: Who Receives Each Fee Origination, title, recording, transfer tax, prepaids, escrow: what each line on page 2 of the Closing Disclosure pays for, and which party actually banks it.
- Title, Survey & Escrow Title Commitment Schedule B: What It Stops Insuring Schedule A names you and the price. Schedule B is where the survey, the easement and a gap between two dates leave your policy. The clock to object is a blank.