On or About closing date?

What is this all about? Can someone please explain why it's so difficult to provide buyers with a hard closing date in the state of New York? We recently sold two properties in two other states and didn't have this kind of uncertainty.

Re: On or About closing date?

It has everything to do with gathering all the stuff you need.

We had an on or about for June 15th. We ended up closing 2 weeks earlier. We had 30 days to close after that date if we wished.

But we had tons of papers to gather, get approved etc.

Once we got a clear to close, then we could all say "does this date work for you"?

Re: On or About closing date?

we signed our contract december 21..our on or about date was feb 1

we could have closed as soon as jan 1 (10 days after contract), or as late as mar 1

we ended up having to go past our contract date, and closed on march 8

we had issues with 2 out of possessions and having affidavits signed, along with our seller coming up with the money that she needed to make up the difference between the purchase price and what she owed..we were ready by february 10th or so

Re: On or About closing date?

In NY, you have to close within a reasonable period of time of the closing date in the contract. In NY, courts have generally intepreted "reasonable period of time" to be 30 days (although that's not a blanket rule). But when negotiating the closing date, it's customary to build in that 30 day grace period. So for example, if a buyer client tells me they need to be in their house by the end of May, then we lobby for an on or about date of May 1, with the expectation that the seller may take that full 30 days to be ready to close.

I have not reviewed the written court opinions on this "reasonable period" issue, but I think in NY, it can be attributed -- at least in part -- to the fact that you have so many parties that need to be present at the closing: the seller's attorney, the buyer's attorney, the bank's attorney, a title company representative. In most states, parties to a real estate transaction don't even use attorneys! So the more people involved, the more complicated scheduling can be.

Re: On or About closing date?

how far in advance? We didnt get a solid closing date until 2-4 days before closing.

At contract, we were given a date just for mortgage approval process but we ended up losing 6 weeks later thanks to our PITA seller!

Re: On or About closing date?

We are finally closing next Tuesday. We signed the contract for a on or about day of Feb. 1st. The sellers had to put a rider on the contract and change the on about day till Feb. 31st. Then there were problems with the co's on the house the sellers were buying! Of course shit flows downstream!!!!! We are just happy to finally be closing after 5 months of dealing with his one particular house.