First Time Home-Buying: The Signing

The Signing process is not the same as the Closing process. I did not know that until we were about to sign.

I had this big misconception that the big day, the signing, was the end of the home-buying process, when I will get the keys and be allowed to move-in. So, what I thought was the date to remember was the incorrect date to remember.

Nonetheless, the signing process of course meant that the end of the process was near. Everyone said that this was the quickest home-buying experience they have heard of. We signed the title only 20 days after we signed the contract. There we were, Chef and I, fashionably late as usual, but thankfully only for 10 minutes. We were greeted by this huge welcome sign in which the last names of the new home-owners scheduled to sign their titles today had been posted.

Over the phone, I was told that we were going to go over all the documents, which, according to the nice lady, will probably take about 2 hours. TWO HOURS?!?! That is some stack of documents! Thankfully, it only took us an hour and a half. We sure covered a lot of ground: where the money is going, what I am really entitled to, yada yada yada. I did finally learn what Escrow is. In my own words, they’re the mediator/administrator people.

And, finally, I got my own copy of all the papers, now in this thick home-owner’s documents envelope. For a bit, I felt annoyed that I have a separate stack of papers, just as thick as the Escrow lady had – hello?! what about the trees? But, I was over that pretty quickly with my OCD-self always diligently keeping records of everything.

So, forgive me trees, but woohoo! We signed our title!