Closing tomorrow! How long is the "signing appointment"?

[pt2005]

First off I would like to thank this Mortgage forum and the Credit Card forum. I was in very bad shape with credit 4-5 years ago with several chargeoffs, bunch of 30/60/90 even 120. I finally got back on my feet and applied for mortgage in late March 2015 with middle score of 701 for a primary home in South California (Orange County). It was a very rough process. 

The biggest problem that occurred to me is when appraisal came in 50K below the sale price. We negotiated and finally settled on a lower price. However, I needed to do a 2nd mortgage to compensate for the amount lender did not approve due to the low appraisal.

Fast forward to last Friday (5/15/2015) I received a "HUD-Approved" email saying that the first loan has been fully approved, and the 2nd loan was also approved but pending loan docs. The HUD said 5/19 is "the day". As of this writing, it's already 5/18 but I have no idea when we will sign and how long it takes. 

Questions

1). How long is a typical signing process? 

2). I need to "bring in" $84xxx.xx K by wiring. Do we wire after the signing or before? My local bank who's currently holding my fund says cutoff time for them is 3ET for fund to make it next business day.

3). Do I get the keys at the signing or do I get the key AFTER escrow verifies the wiring has all completed?

Thanks

[StartingOver10]

Call your closing attorney or title co to see when to wire funds in your state. Normally you wire the funds in prior to closing (day before) but I am in a table funding state and you are in California which is a escrow funding type state.

Also IME closings are generally 40 min to an hour. But your title co can give you a better estimate of time.

[Anonymous]

My appointment ws also about an hour

[Anonymous]

Our appointment was about an hour. We brought a certified check so not sure about the second question. The sellers actually gave us the keys the night before during the final walk through.

[pt2005]

Thanks everyone for replying.

I found out that we could do the signing at my place, my time. The lender appointed an Notary officer to come to my place. The next day (5/19) we initated the wire to escrow. Lender on the same day funded to escrow as well.

Given that I live in California which is a escrow siging state (I just learned), I am puzzled about the Grand Deed piece. I have not signed or seen the Grand Deed but I was told yesterday that we will do the key exchange today. It looks like today (5/20) is the official Recording date.

Anyone with knowledge or experience with California please let me know because I'm super excited.

[frugalQ]

i have no knowledge of CA real estate laws, but i want to say CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!

[Anonymous]

I'm in Washington, which is also an escrow signing state.

We signed on Tuesday 04/14 @ 3:30pm; took about an hour. Our funds were wired from our credit union the following morning and the deed was recorded with the county that afternoon. We didn't get our keys until after the deed was recorded, but we never met the [long distance] sellers either.

[StartingOver10]

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@pt2005 wrote:

Thanks everyone for replying.

I found out that we could do the signing at my place, my time. The lender appointed an Notary officer to come to my place. The next day (5/19) we initated the wire to escrow. Lender on the same day funded to escrow as well.

Given that I live in California which is a escrow siging state (I just learned), I am puzzled about the Grand Deed piece. I have not signed or seen the Grand Deed but I was told yesterday that we will do the key exchange today. It looks like today (5/20) is the official Recording date.

Anyone with knowledge or experience with California please let me know because I'm super excited.

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Are you sure they didn't say GRANT DEED  rather than Grand Deed?  The seller signs the deed to you, you don't sign one until you sell it. Read this short link for details. http://homeguides.sfgate.com/grant-deed-california-6816.html

[Anonymous]

It's not long at all.  Wire the funds prior to closing appt.  Just a bunch of signing papers.  

[pt2005]

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@StartingOver10 wrote:

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@pt2005 wrote:

Thanks everyone for replying.

I found out that we could do the signing at my place, my time. The lender appointed an Notary officer to come to my place. The next day (5/19) we initated the wire to escrow. Lender on the same day funded to escrow as well.

Given that I live in California which is a escrow siging state (I just learned), I am puzzled about the Grand Deed piece. I have not signed or seen the Grand Deed but I was told yesterday that we will do the key exchange today. It looks like today (5/20) is the official Recording date.

Anyone with knowledge or experience with California please let me know because I'm super excited.

---

Are you sure they didn't say GRANT DEED  rather than Grand Deed?  The seller signs the deed to you, you don't sign one until you sell it. Read this short link for details. http://homeguides.sfgate.com/grant-deed-california-6816.html

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It's actually Grant Deed! Thanks StartingOver for pointing it out :-)

We got the keys. Still don't believe it. LO called and emailed around noon yesterday saying "Congratulations. You can do Happy Dance now. It's been confirmed that the Grant Deed was transfer". We got the keys later in the PM from our agent.

Follow up question: Are we going to get a copy of the Grant Deed or anything in paper that shows that we are the rightfully registered owner? I understand that the Title company physically holds the Grant Deed until we pay off the house (just like buying and finance a car) but there's gotta be a "registration" or something similar, right?