Getting Your Money To Escrow

You need to transfer money to Escrow 2 times. Here's why.

Hello, I hope you’re having a great week. And right now I want to talk to you about being proactive on thinking about how your money is going to make its way to escrow. Once you do get under contract, there are two times when money needs to be sent to escrow. One is further earnest money. And that is, when you’re first under contract. Typically, within the first three days, you need to get the amount stipulated on the purchase and sale contract over to the escrow company. This the this money is typically done either a regular check, or cashier’s check or a wire, our preference is always going to be a wire because it’s very easy to document. But if you write a cheque, then we’ll just get proof of that clearing. Now, when you think about getting the rest of the money to escrow at the very end of the of the transaction right before closing, that is when it’s generally going to be a wire. Some people still get cashier’s checks, but I always up for a wire. I want to talk about making sure now before you’re under contract, reach out to your bank, and find out how long that process takes and confirm that you can request a wire from where you are. So for example, if you moved to this area from the East Coast, and your bank that has your downpayment funds is still on the East Coast. Some banks require that you show up in person and request your wire, that’s not going to be possible, necessarily at the time of buying. So you’ll want to be proactive about getting those funds into a source that you can wire from. Now, if you’re wiring from a local bank, you want to double check with them if there are any holds. We just last week had a situation where a fellow requested his his wire from his local bank, and they put a two day hold on it for some management second layer review thing. We actually ended up closing a day late because of that. It was a surprise to everyone and we were terrified. There was wire fraud when the money didn’t show up. So it wasn’t wire fraud. But I want you to reach out to your bank, get the stipulations around wire requests and be prepared so that when that fabulous moment comes, you’re bound to close. There aren’t any last minute hiccups. Hope this is helpful. Have a fabulous week.