You Can’t Get A Mortgage In 21 days, Especially In November!

January 19th, 2017

Can't Get Mortgage in 21 Day, especially in NovemberUpdated September 21, 2018.

There is a lot of discussion around how fast you can close a loan, especially in some of the hot urban markets like Washington DC, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York. A three-week close won’t typically be possible for various reasons. Even in the best possible situation someone else will drop the ball or delay a lender, like a buyer, a title company, or the appraiser won’t be able to gain immediate access to the property, or the IRS will not provide the tax transcripts we need fast enough. There are a lot of third parties that provide critical information that are out of a mortgage lender’s control. Twenty-one days is a no error “drop everything” situation and it is almost certain some party won’t be able to drop everything when they are called on to execute their role immediately.In November, a 21-day close is never possible. You’ll lose time due to the federal holiday for Veteran’s Day in November that many businesses close for. Then we’ll lose at least two more days Thanksgiving week, and very likely another half day or full day due to the fact that a lot of people are leaving town the Tuesday and Wednesday before Thanksgiving as well. Losing all that time makes a 21-day close impossible in November because once we deduct time for all the days off and weekends it becomes a 17 to 18-day close!

I would always allow for at least a 30-day close so that your work, family and any travel plans are not put on hold or upset.

In the month of November I’d plan on a 30-day close plus at least 3 more days for the above mentioned holidays. Rather than setting yourself up for possible failure and having everyone upset that you can’t make the contractually required closing date, and even possibly suffering from some sort of financial penalty or voiding of the contract, you should plan conservatively and then move faster if possible.

You can’t make it go faster, but you can be prepared. One thing you can do is put your mortgage loan application in well before you’re up against a deadline.


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