The new closing documents that the Feds threatened to impose and implement on August 1 will now come into fruition on October 3, after they missed their own deadline.
The document formerly known as the HUD-1 or closing statement will be known at that point as the Closing Disclosure or CD.
While this is a much-ballyhooed conversion, and seen as unnecessary by many, there is not a significant difference between the old HUD-1 and the new CD. Many of the entries are exactly the same and some moved from the rear of the package to the first pages.
The main issue is that the CD must be in the hands of the title company in its final state three days in advance of closing.
This can cause some inconvenience in a market like Nashville with lenders working more loans than any time in the city’s history and, as a result, many loan packages arrive at the title company only hours prior to closing.
Some of that burden has been caused by buyers requesting a 20- to 30-day closing. Those will go away, according to Scott Ractliffe of Pinnacle Financial Partners and closing attorney Paul Soper, founder of West End Title, at least for now.
Speaking at a training seminar for new real estate agents – bless their hearts – Ractliffe suggested all new contracts be written with 60-day closing periods.
Soper was quick to second that emotion.
Where this can cause the most disruption is when there is the domino effect at closing and one transaction in the domino changes in some way.
An example would be a late appraisal, a good possibility since appraisers are overrun, as well.
That appraisal could be for an amount lower than the sale price.
If the buyer is prepared to invest additional cash out of pocket, the sale may proceed.
But the issue is that all of the numbers on the CD will now be different, and a new CD must be created.
The three-day clock must be reset after the creation of the new loan documents.
Like it or not, the change is upon us and, in six months, no one will know that anything changed, just like Vatican ll or the “new” Book of Common Prayer, as some Episcopalians still call it.
Sale of the Week
In the August 14 column, I cited sales data reflecting a slowdown in the upper-end market, with a scarcity of $2 million-plus sales this year.
In the three weeks since that information was posted, there have been five sales of more than $2 million, with two in the recent weeks.
The homes are located in the same area, yet the disparity in the prices based on acreage and square footage gives testament to just how unpredictable the Nashville market is.
Darren Rippy of Keller Williams listed 4414 Tyne Boulevard for $3 million some nine months ago.
Eventually, 279 days and two price reductions later, the house sold for $2.3 million.
Rippy is no stranger to upper-end homes and priced the home well. The house, 9,941 square feet with a solarium pool, came with two parcels totaling 2.3 acres. So the new owner got the house and a Belle Meade lot.
Rippy described the home as having “custom kitchen updates and a floor plan for today elegantly blended with the formality of the past.”
Perhaps it was the formality of the past part that buyers took issue. There is plenty of room with four bedrooms, four full baths and two half baths.
At $2.3 million, the buyers, represented by Fridrich and Clark’s Laura McSpadden, were able to purchase the home for $100,000 less than the current list price and for $700,000 less than the price at which it was originally listed.
Just around the corner, in the same Belle Meade neighborhood, Betty Finucane, also with Fridrich and Clark, listed and sold the house at 4417 Shepard Place without even putting it on the market.
With one acre, compared to the 2.3 on Tyne, and 5,552 square feet, compared to 9,941 on Tyne, the house should have sold for half as much if conventional math were used.
Yet, the Sheppard Place house sold for $2 million with four bedrooms, three baths and two half baths.
There is the “location, location, location” thing, as Shepard is a quiet cul-de-sac and Tyne has been known to provide asphalt for a car or two.
Yet, the two sales speak to the nuances of the Nashville market, and these conditions confound buyers and sellers alike.
Richard Courtney is a real estate broker with Christianson, Patterson, Courtney, and Associates and can be reached at [email protected].