I Hit a Big Snag on My Home Closing Day. Will the Same Happen to You?

Last month, I closed on the purchase of a home. I had been waiting for months to officially buy the house and own the property, so I was excited to finally become the legal owner. Unfortunately, on the morning of the closing, I discovered an issue on my end that almost made it impossible to move forward on that date.

Here's what happened.

This unexpected issue almost derailed my closing

On the day of my closing, I received the information from the title company about the amount of money that I had to send over. My mortgage lender had delivered most of the funds, but I was also making a good-sized down payment and covering closing costs and transfer taxes.

And here's where the problem came in. When you close on a mortgage, you can't just write a check or Venmo the cash over. You need to do a wire transfer so your bank transfers your funds directly into the account of whomever is overseeing the closing (usually a title company or a lawyer). But when I signed into my bank account and went to transfer the money, I wasn't allowed to do that. The bank apparently had a $25,000 daily limit for wiring money using an online request.

I was unaware of this limit as no other bank I've ever used has imposed these requirements. And unfortunately, I'm not the only one who has run into a snag because of this, as there are complaints on Reddit about discovering this problem and almost having their home sale derailed because of it.

Here's why this is such a big problem -- and how you can avoid it

Unfortunately, fixing this issue isn't necessarily simple. I was lucky that I happened to be close to a local branch and I was able to get a same-day appointment with a banker who manually processed the transfer for me (which took a long time and was quite stressful). But not everyone has a bank branch near them or can get an appointment right away.

It's important to remember that all of the numbers for closing are calculated very precisely based on factors like the number of days of interest due on the loan and the number of days of homeowners association fees and taxes that are being paid by the prior owner versus the current owner. So if you can't close on the pre-established day, it can be a big deal to re-do all that. Plus, you don't take ownership of the house until you close, so if you had movers planned and intended to get into your new home right away, you might not be able to.

To avoid this issue, you'll want to get in touch with the bank where you have your funds well before closing day. Find out how much you're allowed to wire out and how the process works. This way, when the time comes for you to move your money over, you'll be able to do it without all the stress I endured -- or without your closing ending up off schedule.