Seller Information

IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING YOUR CLOSING (SELLERS)

IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING YOUR CLOSING (SELLERS)

If our office has been asked to act as settlement agent and to represent the Buyer's lender in the closing of the real estate you are selling, there are some matters that we will require your assistance with in order to expedite the transaction and prevent delays or extra costs to you. They are listed below. Please also remember that you MUST bring a valid drivers license or passport with you to closing for proper identification. The closing cannot take place if you do not have this identification with you. In addition, if you are not a U.S. citizen, you must also bring an alien registration card. In order to insure a smooth closing, we would like to make you aware of the following information.

1.           MORTGAGES: If your property is presently mortgaged, the mortgage(s) will be paid off at the time of closing using proceeds from the sale, if any. You will need to fill out our Closing Information Form and return it to us right away in order that we may contact the mortgagee(s) and make the necessary arrangements for payment. This is very important and requires your immediate attention, as some lenders may take longer to provide payoff information. Also, some lenders may not provide payoffs without us faxing them your specific written authorization. After your mortgages have been paid in full, your lender will send us a discharge, which we will record at the appropriate Registry of Deeds. As part of your settlement charges, our office will charge you a fee of $75.00 per mortgage for Mortgage Discharge Services, unless you bring an original Discharge with you to the closing. In the event there is a non-institutional mortgage (i.e. one given to a private individual, trust or corporation as opposed to a bank or mortgage company), we will require that the payoff amount be furnished to us before the closing and a discharge be delivered at or before the closing. UNFORTUNATELY, THERE CAN BE NO EXCEPTION IN THIS REGARD. If you are uncertain about whether an outstanding loan is held by a private lender, please contact our office or have your attorney do so. The obligation to furnish a discharge at closing applies also to outstanding attachments or other liens, if any. If you currently have a Home Equity Line of Credit, you MUST immediately stop using it.

2.           DEED: The preparation of a new deed to convey the premises to the buyer is your responsibility. You should have your attorney send us a copy of the proposed deed as soon as possible before the closing date. While we cannot represent the both Lender and you, we can prepare a deed for an additional charge of $125.00. Please let us know as soon as possible if you would like us to prepare the deed.

3.           TITLE EXAMINATION. As part of our closing services, we must examine the title to your property. For a sale, we examine the record title for the last 50 years, as well as Probate records. In the event that the examination reveals any title defect, we will notify you or your attorney as soon as possible. Please be aware that due to the recent active real estate market, it is not uncommon to find that there are missing mortgage assignments or discharges. If you have previously purchased an Owner's Policy of Title Insurance and these missing or incorrect items are from a prior owner, you may still be able to proceed with your sale. Therefore, it is important that you immediately notify us if you have purchased Owner's Title Insurance in the past. If you have an attorney and the attorney is able to assist you in clearing any defects in your title, please have your attorney let us know. Otherwise, we are able to assist you in this matter for an additional fee, which typically will not exceed $300.00. For more complex matters, we would also be able to assist you on an hourly fee basis.

Please be advised that if the examination reveals that title to your property is not clear, the Buyer may have a right to postpone the closing, and the Lender will not authorize the closing as well.

If title to your property is held by an Estate and the decedent died less than one year ago, it may be necessary for you to obtain specific permission to sell the property from the Probate Court (a License to Sell.) You will also need to provide an original or certified copy of the decedent's Death Certificate and an original Estate Tax Release (or Affidavit that no estate tax is due) and send them to our office for review prior to the closing. This will also be the case if title to the property is held by a surviving joint tenant or tenant by the entirety.

4.           SCHEDULING THE CLOSING. You should also be aware that most lenders require 72 hours notice in advance of the day of closing to prepare the loan papers and to obtain the funds. There is no exception to this requirement. Therefore, our office must coordinate scheduling of the passing not only with you but with the buyers and brokers as well. If your sale must take place first in order for you to purchase another property, we will do the best that we can to schedule conveniently, but please keep in mind that the other parties' requirements may also contribute to the scheduling.

5.           SMOKE AND CARBON MONOXIDE DETECTOR CERTIFICATE: We call to your attention the provisions of Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 148. You should contact your local fire department, arrange for an inspection, obtain a certificate of compliance and bring the original with you at the time set for closing and fax a copy to us prior to closing. If there is a real estate broker involved in the transaction, they will most likely be taking care of this. If there is no broker, you will need to make arrangements with your local fire department as soon as possible. The certificate will be valid for 60 days from the date it is issued.

6.           ELECTRICITY, WATER, SEWER, and FUEL: You should arrange to have a final water reading done just before your closing. Again, if there is a real estate broker involved, he/she should be assisting you with this. If your electricity is provided by a municipal light plant, you must bring with you a final electric reading. If your home is heated by oil heat and your Purchase & Sale Agreement calls for fuel value to be adjusted, please send us documentation of how much oil will be in the tank at the time of closing.

7.           EXPENSES: As part of your settlement charges, you will be required to pay for Massachusetts Excise stamps (currently $4.56 per thousand of the sale price), recording fees to discharge mortgages and other liens. Assuming you have sufficient equity, these amounts will be deducted from the proceeds of the sale and paid to the appropriate party directly by our office.

8.          POWER OF ATTORNEY: If you or another selling party will not be present at the closing and someone will be signing under a power of attorney, it will be necessary for us to review the power of attorney document prior to the closing. Even if this is the case, the deed transferring title from you to the Buyer must be signed by all record owners in the original and notarized.

9.          CONDOMINIUM UNITS: If the transaction involves a condominium unit, you will be required to provide a certificate pursuant to Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 183A, Section 6(d). This certificate must be signed by a majority of trustees appearing of record at the Registry of Deeds and their signatures must be notarized. The certificate must state on behalf of the organization of unit owners that all of the common expenses which have been assessed to the unit owner have been paid up to date. In certain circumstances, depending on the Condominium Master Deed, you may also be required to obtain from the Trustees a waiver of a right of first refusal to purchase the unit. You will also be required to provide a Master Certificate of Insurance from the condominium association naming, as insureds, the Buyer and the Buyer’s new Lender, as well as its successors and assigns as their interests may appear. It is imperative that the foregoing language be on the certificate of insurance. The trustees of the condominium trust or management company can assist you in this matter.

10.           SALE PROCEEDS: We will make every attempt to record documents and disburse funds on the same day. However, this is sometimes not possible due to time restrictions. Unfortunately, we cannot release proceeds to you until the deed and mortgage have been recorded at the appropriate Registry of Deeds. Your proceeds will be issued to you by a check drawn on our Trust Account as is the standard procedure in Massachusetts. If you prefer, for an additional charge of $50.00, we can send your proceeds via wire transfer to any account that you designate. If you would like us to do this, you must provide us with complete wiring instructions at least 2 business days prior to the closing. If your attorney or listing broker attends the closing, we can release the proceeds check to them to hold in escrow until we notify him/her that the documents have been recorded.

11.           TRUST OWNERSHIP: If this property is being conveyed by a trust, you will be required to provide a recordable trustee’s certificate. If you would like us to prepare this certificate, we can do so for an additional charge of $75.00.

12.           IF YOU ARE SELLING PROPERTY IN THE CITIES OF BOSTON, LYNN, LAWRENCE or HAVERHILL (OTHER THAN A CONDOMINIUM UNIT), FINAL WATER READINGS ARE REQUIRED: Due to experience with the Water and Sewer Commissions in these communities, we have been forced to require a final water reading for all closings pertaining to property in theses Cities. For property in the City of Boston final water reading must be ordered by you from the Water and Sewer Commission. It takes approximately two (2) weeks to get the final reading. Please note that a water bill, even a water bill received on the day of the closing, is not sufficient, as the Boston Water and Sewer Commission is far behind on its billings. For all other communities please contact the Water and Sewer Commission of that City or Town if you have any questions.

13.           CORPORATIONS, LLPs and LLCs: If you hold title to the property in a corporate name or in an LLC or LLP you should immediately take steps to secure the following documents:
A.) a Certificate of Legal Existence from the Secretary of State and latest annual filing;
B.) for corporations, a waiver of the corporate excise tax lien imposed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Revenue under M.G.L. Chapter 62C, Section 51 or statement on the deed that the sale does not constitute a sale of substantially all of the Corporation’s assets.

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REPRESENTING THE INTERESTS OF THE SELLER IN REAL ESTATE TRANSACTIONS

Our office specializes in real estate conveyancing. We are prepared to represent you in the sale of your real estate and to make the entire process easy and enjoyable for you.

Unless we are representing one of the other parties in your sale our office can represent you for a reasonable fee and give you the comfort you need to proceed confidently toward the sale of your home or investment property as well as in the purchase of any new real estate. Some of the services we provide when representing sellers are:

• Review of any agreement with a real estate broker or assistance in deciding whether you should sell the property yourself.
• Negotiation and preparation of the offer to purchase and purchase and sale agreement to protect your interests and concerns.
• Resolve issues which may arise during the pendency of your sale.
• Explain the mortgage process and assist you in understanding just what your buyer’s or lender's requirements mean to you.
• Assist you in resolving and clearing any issues that may be found in the examination of your property's title.
• Prepare the deed from you to your buyer.
• Assist in the coordination of the closing and represent you at the closing, review all closing documents and explain their meaning and significance to you.
• Answer questions you might have and resolve disputes that may arise at any time during the closing process.

Please call our office to discuss how we can represent you and what are fees are for this service. We look forward to hearing from you.

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