The Most Dangerous Part of a Home Sale

By Kendra Conyers

Kendra proudly serves as a Jesus-loving real estate agent whose life and business are guided by faith, purpose, and service. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and a Master of Arts in Counseling, and she is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology.

Most people believe the hard part of buying or selling a home is getting to the contract. It is not. The most dangerous stretch is the one that comes after you are under contract, right up until closing day, and it is where I watch deals fall apart that never should have. Almost every time, the cause is the same: someone was not upfront about one thing.

Let me explain what actually happens between contract and closing, because most people have no idea. The moment you are under contract, an entire machine starts running behind the scenes. The lender, the attorney, and the title company begin verifying everything, and I do mean everything: your income, your job, your debts, the title on the property, the taxes, and any loan you have ever taken. This is not a car lot where you talk your way through. Every claim is checked against a document. After more than two hundred closings, here is what I have learned: the deals that collapse almost never collapse because of the market or the house. They collapse because someone left something out, often not on purpose, and the closing table is the worst possible place to discover a surprise.

If you are buying, the fastest way to lose a deal is a debt or a change you did not mention. Lenders do not approve you once and forget about you. They keep verifying right up to the end, and they watch your debt-to-income ratio closely. An undisclosed car loan, a child support or alimony obligation, or down payment money that is really a second loan you never mentioned can all move your numbers and sink the approval. The one that shocks people most: do not change or quit your job before closing. Lenders pull a verification of employment, often within roughly forty-eight hours of closing, and I have watched a buyer lose a home because they started a new job, even a better one, right before the finish line. If it touches your income or your debt, your lender needs to know early, not at the table.

If you are selling, the surprises show up on your title and come straight out of your check. When you go under contract, the attorney runs a title search, and anything attached to the property surfaces. Old liens, judgments, unpaid or unfiled property taxes, even a contractor who was never paid all have to be cleared before the sale can close, and they are paid from your proceeds at the table. I have had sellers who were certain they were walking away with a healthy check, only to watch liens, judgments, and back child support come off the top until the number was a fraction of what they expected. It is rarely anything shady. Most of the time they simply forgot, or did not realize the item was still attached. But the math is the math, and it is far better to know going in than to learn while you are signing.

Here is the part I most want you to hear, and it is simple: be honest up front. People hold things back because they are embarrassed, or afraid it will kill the deal, or they assume that if no one raises it, the issue will quietly slide through. It will not, because everything gets verified. But if you tell me early, I can almost always help. There is usually a path: we can plan for the lien, structure around the debt, time the job change, or get ahead of the tax issue. What I cannot do is fix a surprise we discover at the closing table with everyone already seated. This is not about judgment. It is my job to get you across the line, and I can only do that if I know what I am actually working with. You can see how I guide sellers through the entire process in my Seller’s Guide.

The stretch between contract and closing is where deals live or die, and honesty up front is the single best thing you can do to protect yours. Everything gets checked, and nothing stays hidden, but almost every problem has a solution when we catch it early, and almost none has a good one when we catch it at the table.

If you are getting ready to buy or sell anywhere in the Charlotte area, come talk to me before you are under contract, not after the surprise. Call me at (910) 578-3306, email me at kendra@kendraconyers.com, or visit kendraconyersandassociates.com.

Pull up a chair, and I’ll see you next time at the Closing Table.