The house we purchased was a bank-owned house so it can be a little more complicated than purchasing from an individual. As described in my earlier post, when we finally found the house we were interested in purchasing, the bank rejected our offer. They came back two weeks later with a counter-offer we could live with on our budget. My dear spouse immediately went to Real Estate agent and signed all necessary paperwork and then we waited and waited. After a week, we called and the Realtor said everything looked good. They were just waiting for the bank to sign off on paperwork. We waited. It is now the end of the month and the Realtor calls and says if you will close tomorrow, the bank will give you a $200 credit.
The next 24 hours were a whirlwind. Although we had all of the cash, it was currently sitting in three different accounts. We needed to get all of the cash into our business account. We started the LLC at the beginning of the year, as we had two other accidental rental properties and wanted some protection before we expanded into more houses. What we did not realize yet, is transferring money into a business account is much different than transferring between personal accounts. Apparently, if you do an online transfer from a personal account to a business account, it can take up to seven days for the funds to be available. We only had 18 hours, not seven days. Fortunately, all of our accounts are at the same bank. Mr. Frugal Princess immediately went to the bank and got everything moved into the business account so funds would be available. We use PNC Bank for our banking needs and I highly recommend.
After he was finished at the Bank, he immediately contacted our insurance agent and got homeowners insurance on the property to begin the next day. This is important, as you do not want your new property uninsured.
We now have all of the money together, but we still do not have a closing statement. Without the closing statement, we could not set up the wire transfer to the title company. Keep in mind, we are at the end of the day and we are scheduled to close at 11 next morning. Friday morning comes, still no closing statement. We FINALLY got the closing statement at a little after 9 on Friday morning. We reviewed and made sure everything looked good on the Statement. Mr. then went to the Bank and did the wire transfer.
I want to take a minute and talk about the wire transfer. When you get the wire information, do a little due diligence and make sure everything is legit. If you are working with a reputable title company, there should be no issues. However, be aware there have been issues with scammers tricking buyers into sending their money to a fraudulent account. It took my less than 10 minutes to verify everything was legit.
When you are figuring the closing costs, have a small reserve for hidden costs. For instance, the cost of the wire transfer was $78 because it was coming from a business account.
Amazingly, everything came together and the closing went off without any problems. We now had a new rental property. Now the real work begins.
Frugal Princess 