How to Finalize a Home Mortgage

"Hi, this is Jim DiVietri from Allied Home Mortgage in Lansing, Michigan on behalf of Expert Village. After we have accumulated all the documentation: the appraisal, the title and everything, and we have the pre-approval, we've sent everything in and we're waiting for--these are key words in the industry--a Clear to Close. We get a Clear to Close, the mortgage company says you have all the documentation in there and all you have to do is set up a time to close. We call up the customer and find out if he can close at a particular date and time and call the title company and coordinate it with them for the closing. After we have the time set up, we meet at the title company and there you sign the same documents that you signed in the office a couple of weeks before that. Like I said, the main thing to check is to make sure that the interest rate is the same, that the Good Faith Estimate is the same; all the documentation that you signed ahead of time is the same as you are signing with the title company. Now there's a couple of different things: on a purchase, when you've signed that final document, they should give you the keys and that house should be yours in the same day. At the end of closing and you've signed all the documentation, that house should be yours. If you're refinancing, you have three days--it's called rescind--you have three days to make up your mind whether you want that loan or not. At the end of three days, if you haven't rescinded or said that you didn't want the loan, the money comes available to you after the end of three days to refinance your house and if you're putting on a porch or a deck or something; money for that deck."