Congratulations! You’ve signed your contract and your subjects are removed! Now what?
Get your contract to us
If you are using a REALTOR®, have your Realtor send your contract to us, and we’ll get your file started.
If you are not using a Realtor, then once your contract is fully signed and all subjects are removed, send us a copy of your contract yourself. You can fax it to us at the location nearest you.
Tell your lender you’ll be using us
If you are going to be using a mortgage to help fund the purchase of your new home, let your lender know that you will be using us so they can get instructions to us.
Timing
In a perfect world, we will have about two weeks from the date we receive your contract and your lender’s instructions to the Completion Date.
Your “Completion Date” is the date the title documents are submitted to the appropriate registry, changing the ownership of the property into your name. This date will be set out in your contract.
Two weeks gives us enough time to get instructions from your lender, to do the necessary searches for your transaction, to prepare paperwork for you and the seller, to get things signed, to get money in our trust account, and to submit documents to the appropriate registry.
Contact us right away if your transaction is closing in less than a week, or if you think your transaction has special terms in it that will need extra time to deal with.
Intake
Once we receive your contract, we’ll give you a call and ask you some questions about your transaction.
We do this to help us make sure we have all of the information we need to start your file, and to prepare your paperwork properly.
During that call, our staff will arrange a signing appointment with you, so you can come in and sign the documents required to complete your transaction.
Signing Meeting
You will need to sign legal papers; we will make a signing appointment with you that will be about 3-5 days before your completion Date. That signing meeting will take approximately an hour.
It will make your signing meeting go more smoothly if you:
- make a list of any questions you might have
- come undistracted – make other arrangements for children and pets, and have enough coffee!
- don’t be afraid to say so when things don’t make sense
- bring your identification
We will try to get all of your papers arranged for that signing meeting so you can sign everything together.
Occasionally, if something changes on your file, or if your Lender requires more information, we might need to have you come back in to see us, but our hope is that we can have everything done at this signing meeting.
Let us know right away if you are not going to be in town in the week before your Completion Date, so we can help you make arrangements for an “out of office” signing.
How much money to I need to bring in?
We will go through a financial statement with you at your signing meeting.
That financial statement will show you the various costs – the purchase price and various closing costs such as taxes, adjustments, fees and other items – that you will need to pay for as part of your purchase. We call the amount you need to bring in to us your “cash to close”. You might think of it as the remainder of your “deposit”.
Make sure your cash to close funds are easily available. If you have them in an internet bank, or in investments, you will need to get them available early enough so you can deliver them to us the day before closing.
How do you get the mortgage funds
Once you have signed the various documents the lender provides to us, we will send a request to your lender (along with the various documents and opinions they require). Your lender will send funds to us, to deposit to our trust account.
When will this be all over?
The biggest part happens on your Completion Date, when the title will be transferred into your name. We will follow up on a number of things post-closings, but we will call you to say congratulations when the documents have been submitted to the appropriate registry to change the title into your name.
When can I move in?
Your contract will set out the date and time you will get possession of your new home.
Your Realtor will give you the keys, if you used a Realtor. If you did not use a Realtor, then you must make arrangements to get the keys from the Seller directly.
Should I use a Lawyer or a BC Notary?
Lawyers and BC Notaries both provide the same excellent standard of care when it comes to conveyancing. Both Lawyers and BC Notaries carry professional insurance, and both are required to do continuing education each year to keep their skills up. Both can assist you with simple or complicated purchases, and both can give you legal advice.
So what’s the difference? BC Notaries tend to focus on conveyancing in their practice more often than lawyers do, and so will often have more day-to-day experience in this field. BC Notaries are also trained in mediation and alternative dispute resolution, and will approach any problems from a collaborative approach, rather than an adversarial one.
If you’re worried about whether a BC Notary can work on a collapsing deal, don’t! BC Notaries can, and do, deal with collapsing deals on a regular basis. A truly collapsed deal happens only very rarely, and if that is the case, then both the lawyers and BC Notaries in our firm will refer you to a litigation specialist, so you can get the advanced help you need.