As your close date approaches, many different entities and individuals will be in contact with you and with each other, sometimes on a daily basis. The coordinator of all these activities is the escrow officer. The escrow officer works for an escrow company that you and the buyer have agreed on in the contract to purchase. The primary job of the escrow officer is to coordinate and facilitate all the paper work necessary for the transfer of the property into your buyer's name and the filing of the legal paper work attaching a mortgage to it for their lender. They also will be removing your mortgage lien once the funds are transferred and remove your name off the property and tax roles. Washington Real Estate Law is very specific as to how property must be transferred from one name to another and the timelines and details as to how this is legally done. The escrow office will ensure all the appropriate conditions and requirements have been met under the law.
The escrow officer will be detailing a list of all the costs to you and to the buyer. This itemized list will detail all your credits and your expenses (fees, escrow costs, title costs, etc.) This list of assets and liabilities is called a HUD-1 statement and is governed by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. This ensures that there is a standardized accounting of your transaction that can be easily understood and scrutinized.
You will schedule an appointment with the escrow officer to sign the appropriate paper work, for the transfer of your property out of your name. The buyer will also be doing this as well. It is not necessary that both you and the buyer do this at the same time or face-to-face. In many instances, the buyer may not be in the same city.
After your signing and after the buyer has signed (which may be a different day), your transaction will be "closed" on the mutual agreed closing date from you original contract with the buyer. This action is done at a government office in your city and recorded. Once the transaction has been recorded and a recording number received, the house is legally the buyer's. If you have agreed to possession at close, you now will turn over the keys to the buyer or their agent. In some contracts, you and the buyer will have agreed to different terms for possession after the closing date.
