The five things that actually delay a closing

Closings that go sideways rarely do so for exotic reasons. In our files the same five issues account for the overwhelming majority of delayed or collapsed transactions, and four of them are avoidable if someone looks early enough.

First: mortgage instructions arriving late. Lenders routinely send final instructions to the lawyer twenty-four to forty-eight hours before closing, and if there is a condition in them you cannot satisfy in a day — a payout statement, an updated appraisal, proof of insurance naming the lender — you are stuck. Ask your broker to confirm instructions have been issued a week out.

Second: an undischarged mortgage on the seller's title. Someone paid off a loan in 2011 and the discharge was never registered. It is fixable, but it involves the original lender's discharge department, and those move at their own pace.

Third: the deposit. Sending it by e-transfer with a daily limit lower than the deposit amount, or from an account whose funds are on hold, is a surprisingly frequent problem. Confirm the mechanics with your brokerage the day the offer is accepted.

Fourth: unregistered work orders and open building permits. A deck built without a permit in 2016 does not stop your closing, but a municipal work order does, and it only surfaces on the search.

Fifth, and the only one nobody can prevent: the other side's lawyer is unreachable. Vacation, illness, or a firm with more files than staff. Building a day of slack into your closing date costs nothing and occasionally saves everything.

The pattern in all of this is that early searching buys options. A title problem found three weeks out is an inconvenience; found the afternoon before closing it is a bridge loan and a hotel room.