Steps to closing

Acceptance is the moment both sides have agreed to the same contract. Several clocks start then, including the buyer’s earnest-money delivery and your seller disclosure. On the standard form, a deadline is 5:00 p.m. Mountain Time, and days are calendar days.

Put every date on a calendar the day you accept. A missed disclosure date is your problem to solve. A missed buyer deadline can change the buyer’s rights. Your advisor keeps the list. You still read the dates.

You provide the written disclosure of what you know, by the date in the contract. Then the buyer’s due diligence time is when they inspect, read title, and read association documents, if those boxes and dates are in the contract.

You do not have to repair what an inspector finds. You can say no. You can sign a repair, a credit, or a price change. Nothing changes until both sides have signed it. The offers page describes the buyer’s cancel right when the due diligence box is checked.

If the buyer is borrowing, the lender usually orders an appraisal. If the appraisal box is checked and the value is below the price, the buyer may have a right to cancel by the deadline in the contract. You and the buyer can try to sign a new price. A new price exists when you both sign it. An appraisal is not a promise that the sale will close at the list price.

A title company checks the title, holds money, and records the deed. You do not have to use a company someone else prefers. Ask your advisor who they have used on houses like this one, then choose.

In many Utah purchases, the seller pays for the owner’s title policy and the buyer pays for the lender’s policy. That is a custom, not a rule you can skip reading. The settlement fee is sometimes split. An association may charge for a resale certificate or a transfer. Who pays is in the contract and in the association’s rules.

On settlement day you sign the deed and the other seller papers. The deed is recorded with the county. Recording is what finishes the transfer. The settlement deadline in the contract is the date that work is aimed at. If a condition is still open, the date can move, and only a signed change moves it.

This page does not give tax advice and does not list tax amounts. A sale can raise tax questions. Consult a tax professional before you rely on anyone else’s description of the tax result.

Before you wire any money, call the title company at a phone number you looked up yourself. Do not rely on wiring instructions that arrive only by email. Bring a government ID to signing. If you cannot attend in person, ask the title company early what Utah allows for a remote signing.

The advisor you started with stays through recording. Inspections, amendments, and any association or club correspondence come back to that person.