Week 11: Key Release!

Week 11: How to Make Settlement Day / Key Release Day a Success!

Love Selling Your Home Series: Week 11

This series, Love Selling Your Home: Minimize Your Stress, Maximize Your Profit, is a step-by-step guide that covers everything you need to know to sell your home in today’s market, from finding a real estate agent to all the way to Closing day.

The big day is finally here! You are going to officially sell your home and hand over the keys to the new owners. Other words for this day are Settlement day, Closing Day, Possession Day, and most commonly, Key Release Day! It’s the day you’ve been working towards, so it needs more than one word!

It’s not unusual to experience a wave of anticipation and excitement leading up to this day. But no one wants the transaction to be sidetracked by any surprises.

Do your homework now and you’ll have a successful Key Release!. Here’s what you need to do prior to this day, and also what to expect at your closing and what to bring with you.

Pre-Closing Tasks to Complete ( 1-2 weeks before Closing)

• Any agreed upon repair work to the property or home should be completed by this date unless the buyer has agreed to work with their own contractor at a later day. The buyers will have their walk-through inspection just prior to the closing that day, if written into the Contract.
• Prepare to vacate your home a day or two prior to the date on the Contract. You will want time to get everything out of the house and do a clean for the new Buyers.
• Transfer your utilities to the new property, effective that date. You can do this a week or two ahead of time, which I recommend.
• Cancel any monthly fees such as trash service, service for any alarm systems, condo fees, etc.
• Cancel any automatic payments that have to do with your home so you aren’t paying for it after you sold it!
• Contact your lender to make sure they have a forwarding address so they can forward any money left over in your tax and insurance account.
• Let your lawyer know how you wish to receive the proceeds of sale. Usually you will have to provide banking information. The proceeds of sale are what is left over after your mortgage is discharged, and Closing costs (Lawyer fees, cost for Title Insurance, realtor fees, etc. ) are subtracted. You will receive a Statement of Adjustment and all your paperwork (including the new Title in your name) at a later date from your lawyer.

On Closing Day / Key Release

• On this day, your lawyer will contact your real estate agent to say keys are releasable. This means that your lawyer has received all the money for your home form the Buyer. Once this happens, the home is now in Possession of the Buyer. This can take place as early as 9:30 in the morning or as late as 1:30 pm, but keys are USUALLY released around noon as per the Contract. So be prepared in case your money arrives sooner than later!
• Cancel your homeowners insurance once your lawyer has released the keys.
• Double check to make sure all keys (door, mailbox, gate, garage remotes, etc,) and any other items are left in the home that the buyer will need. These can no longer be in your possession. You can either leave them in your home a couple days prior but make sure your real estate agent has at least one key to hand over to the Buyer’s agent to enter the property once keys are released. As agents we usually take the key out of the key box once the property is sold and hold it for safe keeping until Closing Day.

What to Expect at the Closing

Your agent will hand over the key to the Buyer’s agent once keys are released by the Seller’s lawyer, which is when the funds are actually received. You don’t have to do anything unless the agent has questions.

Congratulations … Your home is officially SOLD!

Now that you have closed, it’s time to move on to your new home and make some new memories.

This was the last article in my Love Selling Your Home series. It’s taken you step-by-step throughout the entire process. You now know that selling your home doesn’t have to be stressful or chaotic. 

I hope you’ve learned a lot from this series and more than anything, I hope you feel confident that you can make this happen and I’d love to help you do it.  When you are ready to start talking to agents, I would be honored to be one of the agents you interview.  Let me show you how my unique approach to selling your home works so well to ensure you get the biggest profit possible, with the least amount of hassle for you, all at the same time. 

Email me (link to my email) and I’d be happy to meet with you and help you figure out what you need to do to get your home ready (and what you don’t), talk pricing, talk marketing and timing too!  I think you’ll feel even more excited about selling your home and how great of a process it can be after we meet.

Next week, I have a bonus article for you, How to Buy and Sell at the Same Time. So many sellers are also buying a new home. You’ll learn how to do it successfully.