Why You Need To Visit Your Home After Closing

By JP Fluellen

JP became a licensed real estate agent in 2010 after being a real estate investor for 2 years. He’s been a top real estate agent at Coldwell Banker The Property Exchange and has recently started the Titan Real Estate Team at eXp Realty.

Imagine you’ve just closed the deal on your dream home. The paperwork is signed, the keys are in your hand, and you’re ready to move in. This is the common scenario most buyers often experience. However, some neglect to check the property after closing. This is crucial as failing to visit your new house can lead to costly problems. Today, I’ll share with you why this is important and how it happened in a real-life scenario:

The story: After closing, many buyers want to jump straight into moving in. But in this real story, the buyers skipped visiting the house immediately after closing. The excitement of getting their new home and moving in on Monday made them overlook the need to check the property. Unfortunately, this led to a major problem.

The buyers closed on the house on a Friday morning. Everything went smoothly—inspections were done, underwriting was completed, and the negotiations were in their favor, and they were thrilled with everything because the home was perfect. But, after closing, instead of visiting the property, they decided to wait until Monday to get their belongings.

Now, this house has three sump pumps and a sewage pump, which are all critical to keeping the basement dry. These systems need power to work, but the utilities were turned off the morning of closing by the seller’s agent. The buyers didn’t realize this and didn’t have the utilities transferred to their name before closing.

When they arrived at the house on Monday, they found the basement flooded with four inches of water, and they were devastated. The sump pumps had failed because there was no power, and the water had nowhere to go.

Why does visiting your newly purchased home matter? This could have been avoided if the buyer had visited the home after closing. Even if you didn’t do a final walk-through the day before, it’s critical to check that everything is in order. The buyers missed this step, and it led to serious flooding in their new home. Had they gone to the house immediately after closing, they would have noticed that the utilities weren’t switched over, and they could have called the utility company to get everything in order before moving in.

How to protect yourself from unexpected issues? Here’s how to avoid this situation in your own home-buying process:

• Visit the home after closing. Don’t assume everything is fine. Check the basics, like utilities, water systems, and other critical infrastructure.
• Transfer utilities before closing. Make sure you’ve set up the utilities to transfer into your name. This simple step ensures that your home is ready when you arrive.
• Consider preventive measures. After the flooding incident, the buyers decided to install a security system with moisture sensors in the basement. Months later, they had another flood, but this time, the security company took responsibility and paid for the damage. The buyers got lucky, but they were proactive about preventing further issues.

The moral of the story is that you don’t skip the simple, yet critical, step of checking your home after closing. It might feel like a small task, but it can save you from expensive surprises down the line. Protect your investment, avoid unnecessary stress, and ensure your home is move-in ready.

If you ever have questions about what to do after closing or need advice on your next steps, feel free to call or text me at 307-772-1184 or email me at jp@titanreteam.com. I’m here to help guide you through every part of the home-buying process.