Funds to Close
When you're buying or refinancing your home, sometimes you have to bring money to closing. That can be in the form of money for a down payment. It could be to pay some closing costs, or maybe it could be to pay off other debts as part of the whole loan structure. But one of the questions that comes most often is
"How do I get that money to escrow?"
Well, the absolute best way to do it is to wire money from your bank to the escrow account.
Wiring involves calling your bank and ordering a wire, and it costs $20. But trust me, it is the easiest way. It involves the least amount of documentation, it's the smoothest method possible for everybody.
You can bring in a cashier's check. That's acceptable, but it can take a few days for that money to clear. So, if we're in a time crunch, wiring is always going to be good.
A personal check doesn't work.
So a wire's going to be the best source of funds.
The other thing I recommend is to make sure you get your money to escrow early.
When I do my transactions, I like to send my wire a week prior to closing. That way, in case there's any hiccups, any challenges with documentation, or the money getting there, we have extra time to sort it out.
The other thing is to make sure that we're only using funds that we've already documented, that you've already disclosed to us. Please don't wire funds from an account we don't know about. Don't transfer funds between accounts that we don't know about, because now we'll have to go get those statements. If there's any deposits on those statements we don't know about, we have to go back and verify all of those.
If you are wiring, make sure you wire it to the escrow company's wiring account number. They're going to share that information to you, they're going to send you that information up front when you first open your escrow account, but it will never change. There's some wire fraud going on where people are intercepting emails and sending you an email at the last-minute saying "Oops, here's the new wiring number, 1234" and then the money goes poof. That wiring account will never change. If in doubt, call the escrow company and verify it verbally.
To recap:
Send the wire,
Send it early, and
Verify with escrow.
If you have any questions at all, we’re here to help.
