Home Selling Step 9: Closing Your Home Sale (Title, Funding, and the Last 72 Hours)

If you are closing your home sale, you are in the final stretch—but this is also where sellers get surprised. Most of the work is already done, and yet the last few days can be nail-biting because the moving parts you don’t control (lenders, title, appraisals, and paperwork timing) can still create friction.

This step is designed to help you understand what “normal” looks like in the final phase, what problems still pop up late in markets like Abilene and the Big Country, and what you (and your REALTOR®) should be watching so you reach closing and funding without unnecessary drama.

Step 9 Comes After Steps 1–8 for a Reason

You can’t reliably finish closing your home sale if earlier steps were skipped—because late-stage problems usually come from one of three places: weak preparation, weak contract management, or weak communication.

• Home Selling Step 1: Deciding Whether to Sell Your Home (and Whether It Makes Sense)
• Home Selling Step 2: Understand Your Net Proceeds From Selling Your Home
• Home Selling Step 3: Prepare Your Home to Sell (Before You Hire a Realtor)
• Home Selling Step 4: Choose a Realtor to Sell Your Home (or Go FSBO, Flat-Fee, or Hybrid)
• Home Selling Step 5: Price Your Home to Sell (Texas CMA, BPO, and Appraisal Reality)
• Home Selling Step 6: List Your Home for Sale (Launch, Traction, Feedback, and Adjustments)
• Home Selling Step 7: Weigh Offers on Your Home (Beyond Price)
• Home Selling Step 8: Under Contract on Your Home (Option Period, Inspections, and Repair Negotiations)

By now, the inspection fight should be done, the option period should be behind you, and the contract should be moving toward a finish line. Step 9 is where your job becomes: keep the runway clear and don’t introduce new turbulence.

Closing Your Home Sale vs. Funding: The Two-Part Finish Line

Many sellers think “closing” is the moment it’s done. In Texas, the more accurate mindset is:

• Closing: the documents are signed and delivered.
• Funding: the lender’s money is delivered to the title company and the transaction can complete.

In practical terms: you may sign, and still not be “done” until funding occurs. That timing matters for moving plans, possession, and your own next-step purchases.

Local Reality: Appraisals Can Come In Late

In major Texas metros, lender workflows and appraisal pipelines are often faster. In Abilene and the Big Country, the pace can be different—especially when appraisers are stretched thin or the market is out of sync with the high-volume I-35 corridor.

Late appraisal timing creates two types of stress:

• Value stress: the appraisal comes in short, and the deal must be solved quickly.
• Condition stress: the appraiser flags lender-required repairs late, when sellers thought “the hard part” was already over.

These appraisal-driven items are not normal repair negotiations. They are closer to lender conditions—and if they are not addressed, the loan may not fund.

Last-Minute Repair Surprises: Rare, But Real

Most inspection-driven repair negotiation should be finished in Step 8. In Step 9, you should not be creating a new list of repairs or reopening old battles.

However, surprises do still happen—especially when:

• no inspections were performed and the appraisal is the first serious “third-party look” at the property,
• a roof issue is discovered late,
• peeling paint or safety issues trigger a lender requirement, or
• a lender overlays additional conditions late in the process.

This is the phase where a seller may feel blindsided. Your REALTOR®’s job is not to perform miracles. It is to help you make an informed decision: cure the condition and close, or refuse and accept the consequences.

Title, Survey, and “Paper Problems” That Show Up Late

In many cases, the last-minute issues are not repair-related. They are paperwork-related:

• Title issues: unreleased liens, probate/estate documentation, name mismatches, old judgments, or clouded title items that must be cured.
• Survey issues: encroachments, easements, or boundary surprises. In-town and platted properties tend to have fewer major survey issues, but they still occur.
• HOA or payoff issues: delays obtaining payoff statements, HOA documents, or updated balances.

A key point: these issues often have nothing to do with whether you are “a good seller.” They are administrative realities, and the fix is usually paperwork, time, and coordination.

The Last 72 Hours: Check In, Don’t Joggle Elbows

This is where sellers benefit from the “captain coffee” rule: once the gear is down, you don’t start handing people drinks.

In the final days, the right posture is:

• confirm milestones are being hit,
• confirm documents are complete,
• confirm the buyer’s lender is clear-to-close (or on track),
• confirm title has what they need, and
• avoid introducing new variables.

Your agent should be in active communication with the title company and the other side, but this is not the stage for dramatic renegotiation or side missions. The goal is a clean landing.

Seller Timelines Are About Holding the Buyer to the Contract

On the seller side, deadlines and timelines are usually less about your own tasks and more about buyer performance: financing, documentation, lender conditions, and required actions by certain dates.

If the buyer fails to perform, contracts can allow remedies. But this must be handled carefully and professionally—especially with FHA, VA, and USDA transactions where the buyer may not be “at fault” in a practical sense even if the timeline slipped.

This is a place where your REALTOR® should help you separate principle from outcome. Sometimes firmness is necessary. Sometimes patience is the smart play. The decision should be grounded in facts, not emotion.

Closing Your Home Sale: Review the Closing Disclosure and Settlement Statement

As you get close to closing your home sale, the money side of the transaction comes into focus fast—and this is where sellers can get caught off guard. Two documents matter more than anything else at this stage:

• the Closing Disclosure (CD), and
• the Settlement Statement (often called the ALTA statement, and sometimes still referred to as a “HUD” by habit).

Closing Disclosure (CD): Lender-Driven, Often Less Intuitive for Sellers

The Closing Disclosure is a lender-driven document. It exists primarily to disclose the buyer’s loan terms and cash-to-close. Sellers may receive a seller-side version, but it’s not designed to be “seller-friendly.” It will still show the big picture—sale price, payoffs, commissions, prorations, credits, and estimated net proceeds—but it’s not always the clearest format.

Settlement Statement: The Seller-Friendly “Do These Numbers Match Reality?” Document

The Settlement Statement is usually the document sellers understand more easily. It lays out the flow of money in plain buckets: gross sale price, costs, payoffs, credits, and what you actually walk away with. If Step 2 established your expectations, this is where you verify the outcome.

Who Explains What (and Why Your REALTOR® Shouldn’t Be Making Up Answers)

Your REALTOR® will typically review these documents for consistency with the contract and to flag obvious red flags. But your REALTOR® is generally not the party who should be “explaining” lender math, payoff timing, escrow accounting, or wire details.

• Title company: the correct authority for seller-side disbursements, prorations, payoffs, and net proceeds.
• Buyer’s lender: the correct authority for buyer-side loan terms and cash-to-close mechanics.

Plain truth: your REALTOR® will look at the numbers—but you are the one who knows if they’re wrong. If something doesn’t match what you agreed to (price, concessions, repairs, credits, closing date prorations), raise the issue immediately.

Closing Your Home Sale Checklist: What Sellers Should Confirm Before Signing

• Sales price matches the contract (and any written amendments).
• Concessions/credits match what was negotiated (home warranty, repairs, closing cost credits, price reductions, etc.).
• Commission amounts match the listing agreement and any changes agreed in writing.
• Loan payoff amount looks reasonable (and you understand whether per-diem interest is included through the correct date).
• Prorations make sense (taxes, HOA, and any prepaid items based on the correct closing date).
• Title fees and seller-paid fees are expected for your market and your contract terms.
• Repair credits and holdbacks (if any) are documented correctly, with clear terms.
• Your net proceeds are in the range you expected based on Step 2—and if not, you know exactly why.
• Disbursement method is verified: if you’re wiring money (rare for sellers, more common for buyers), confirm instructions by calling a known number for the title company (not a number from an email or text).

If something is off, the right move is not to “hope it’s fine.” The right move is to ask the title company to walk you through the line item until it makes sense. A clean close is not just about signing—it’s about closing your home sale with the correct numbers, on purpose.

Commission Review: There Should Be No Surprises at the Finish Line

By the time you reach closing, the commission you agreed to pay your REALTOR® should be fully understood—and fully expected.

The percentage is the percentage. If you agreed to a commission structure when you hired your agent, the numbers on the settlement statement should reflect exactly that agreement. Closing is not the moment for new fees to appear.

In recent years, some sellers have begun seeing line items such as:

• “marketing fees,”
• “transaction fees,”
• “administrative fees,” or
• other add-ons that were not clearly disclosed up front.

If those fees were not explicitly discussed and agreed to in writing when you hired your agent, you should ask questions. Paying a full-service commission should not mean being nickeled and dimed at the end of the transaction.

Your REALTOR® will review the settlement statement, but you are the one who knows whether the numbers match what you agreed to. If something looks unfamiliar or unexpected, pause and ask for an explanation—before signing.

This is not about being difficult. It is about transparency and trust. A few hundred dollars quietly added at the end of a transaction is not something clients forget, and it is not something that strengthens long-term relationships.

Wire Fraud Warning: Trust Nothing You Didn’t Verify

This is the most important safety point in this step.

Wire fraudsters are exceptionally good at making fake instructions look real. They can spoof email addresses, mimic signature blocks, clone logos, and insert themselves into a legitimate thread.

If you send money to the wrong place—or if funds are diverted—you are often out of luck. Recovery is not guaranteed. In many cases, it does not happen.

If you’ve already covered this warning on the buying side, it is still worth repeating here. Sellers sometimes handle payoffs, proceeds wiring, or relocation-related transfers. The risk is real on both sides of the transaction.

Possession, Final Walkthroughs, and “Nothing New” Rules

Even though most seller anxiety is about funding, sellers should also be aware of the “last-mile” logistics:

• Final walkthrough: buyers will typically confirm the property condition matches expectations and that agreed repairs are complete.
• Utilities and trash: keep utilities on through closing unless instructed otherwise; avoid creating walkthrough surprises.
• Leave the home as agreed: if the contract or addenda define what stays, what goes, and cleanup expectations, follow it precisely.

This is not the time for “one last project.” It is the time for clean, predictable, and boring.

When Closing Delays Happen: What Sellers Should Do

Sometimes closings slip. When they do, sellers should immediately get clarity on one thing:

Is this a document problem, a lender problem, a title problem, or a buyer problem?

Once the cause is identified, your next move is usually one of these:

• grant a short extension with clear documentation and updated timelines,
• require proof of progress (clear-to-close targets, lender condition status), or
• prepare to enforce remedies if non-performance becomes clear and material.

Your goal is not to “win a fight.” Your goal is to preserve the highest-probability path to completion without letting the deal drift.

Closing Your Home Sale: A Seller Mindset That Prevents Mistakes

If you take one mindset into this phase, let it be this:

At the end, the job is coordination and risk control.

This is the phase where:

• buyers are anxious,
• sellers are tired,
• lenders are deadline-driven,
• title is paperwork-driven, and
• a single missed detail can cause a delay.

The best sellers and the best agents do not create drama here. They confirm, verify, and keep the runway clear.

What Comes Next

Once closing your home sale is complete and funding is confirmed, the transaction is done—but the practical wrap-up is not always instant. In Home Selling Step 10, we’ll cover post-closing realities: proceeds timing, payoffs and releases, documentation to keep, moving/possession clean-up, and how to avoid “after closing” surprises.

About Me — Doug Berry, MBA, REALTOR®

The Bow Tie Agent

I’m a REALTOR® with Better Homes & Gardens Senter, REALTORS® who focuses on helping clients understand the real-world side of homeownership—especially the decisions that affect long-term stability. With an MBA and experience as a lender with USDA Rural Development’s mortgage programs, I approach the process the same way I do with clients: clearly, calmly, and without sales pressure.

If you have questions, want a second set of eyes as you’re closing your home sale, or want help navigating the final phase of a transaction in Abilene or the Big Country, feel free to reach out:

📧 Doug@senterrealtors.com

📞 325-338-9734

🌐 www.dougberry.realtor