Hi, it’s Nick, with Sell My San Antonio House. And people ask us all the time, “Okay, well, now that I’m selling my house to you, when we go to closing, what documents am I going to need to sign?” It’s a great question. And when you’re selling a house, things can differ from title company to title company, but there are some documents that you’re going to see time after time.
And most of them are going to be really similar to what we’ve got here. You’re going to have a settlement statement, also called a HUD statement, or sometimes people just call it the HUD. What it is, is a breakdown of all the costs that are involved in the transaction. So you’ll have, obviously you’ll have your sales price. So I think I would want to check that. And you’re going to have a breakdown over here, depending on your agreement. So what all is charged to the buyer? What all is charged to the seller?
Now there’s also, if you were only going to look at one number, it’s my opinion that this number would be most important. It’s almost always right down here, and it’s called cash to seller. Because if you’re selling your house, then that is how much money is coming to you. Which in my opinion is probably the most important number, because that’s the one you want to double-check. Maybe you want to triple-check that one. But you’re going to sign the HUD statement.
You’re going to sign a deed. Lots of times it’s going to be a general warranty deed. Sometimes there are special warranty deeds, but you’re definitely going to sign a deed. And what you’re doing is then you’re deeding your property to the buyer in exchange for whatever you agreed upon. So when you sign your deed, your deed gets recorded as you’re signing over the property.
All title companies are then going to have a privacy policy notice where they talk about, hey, we’re not going to sell your information. We’ve taken some of your information and we won’t disclose any of your information, a pretty standard disclosure that’s going to be in there. I think everyone that I’ve ever been to has an affiliated business agreement disclosure. It’s saying that they do business with certain different companies. And that company may have made money. They may own a portion or some of that company. And it’s another disclosure saying, “Hey, we told you.”
Then they have the packet of disclosure for the title company. It’s saying, Hey, this is what the title inspection covers. This is what the tile inspection doesn’t cover. It’s not just for the sellers, it’s for the seller and the buyer, but it’s saying, hey, they’re not guaranteeing things like your survey, or maybe what the appraisal guy did in an inspection, but they are letting you know that what they researched was the title work on the property. There are different things that they don’t guarantee with their title work.
Proceeds from real estate. So they have to tell the IRS if you’ve got proceeds from the real estate. It’s required, they’ve got to send off the info. So they’re letting you know.
Affidavit as to debts and liens. Basically, this is saying that, okay, the title company looked for any debts or liens attached to the property, but is that everything? Or are you hiding something? You’re probably not. But you are saying that, hey, I’m not aware of anything else that we haven’t talked about, hasn’t been already disclosed. Also, affidavit of identity. This one is pretty common. So whenever they’re checking the property, they’re going to check for any liens or debts tied to the property, but also the people that are selling it, or gaining proceeds from the property. So if you have a name that’s very common when they run those, so if you’re John Smith, there’ll be a whole bunch of John Smiths. And most of those times they aren’t going to be you, but you’re also signing this saying, hey, we found this, do things that may or may not be tied to this person that’s selling the property. If they’re not you, you’re saying, “Hey, that’s not me.”
Seller forwarding address. You’re going to want to let them know where you’re headed. This is a big one. Seller proceeds instructions. So where do you want your money to go? Most of the time people get a wire that I’ve seen, but you can get a check. You can have a check mailed to you, but you can definitely want to fill that out so they know where to send you your money. Other than that, that’s most of the documents you’re going to sign most of the time.
Are there other things involved? Of course, because different closings require different things based on the title work that’s there. A different title company is going to have a slightly different disclosure than another one. But in general, it’s something like that, that you’re going to sign and at least gives you a good idea of what you’ll be walking into.
And keep in mind, you’re going to have the escrow officer there with you when you’re signing. And those people work for the title company. So they’ve been through these documents tons and tons and tons of times, just ask them, ask them your questions. They’ll be happy to answer. So I hope that helps what documents will I be signing at closing. If we can do anything for you, please give me a shout (210) 201-6644 or through the website, sellmysanantoniohouse.com.