Buying A New Home? Certified Funds No Longer Accepted To Close.
What? Yes, you read it right. Certified funds may no longer be an acceptable mean of funding a purchase. Last week, I represented a client at the purchase of an Andersonville condo (they got a great deal by the way - but that's for another post). As I have done over a hundred times before, I instructed my client that he should bring the necessary "cash to close" in the form of a certified check payable to themselves (not to "cash" as a check written as such could be lost and the funds gone). My client followed my instruction and came to closing with the requisite funds in the form of a Bank of America certified check written to himself. All was good, or so we thought. After signing the mountain of documents required to purchase a property in the progressive age, we sat back and waited for the title closer to do her job. We were all stunned when she took one look at our check and said "no"....."not acceptable." Huh??? She went on to explain that due to the advent of "phone deposits" (i.e. take a picture of a check and deposit it to your bank account), the title company could no longer accept certified checks because the client or some other nefarious and ill purposed individual could possibly have taken a phone snap shot of the closing check and thus have deposited the funds prior to our client having tendered same to the tile company. Wow! After scrambling to cancel the check and securing a last minute wire transfer, we closed the deal. Afterwards, I called around to a few colleagues and discovered that in fact almost all title companies are now following a similar policy. Take note. Its a new world out there folks.
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