A seller may have moved before the sale closes, or a buyer may still be working in another state. Signing from elsewhere can be arranged in several ways, depending on the lender, title company and applicable requirements.
Closing from another location
Most closings can be handled without you present, through documents sent for signature and notarization where you are, or through someone you authorise in writing to sign for you. Which method is available depends on your lender and your title company, and they need the question in the first week, not the last.
The usual ways it is done
- A mail-away closing, where the package is sent to you and signed in front of a notary wherever you are, then returned
- A signing arranged locally to you, at a title office, a bank or with a travelling notary
- Remote online notarization, where the signing happens on video with an electronic notary
- A power of attorney, where somebody you name signs on your behalf
Which of those is on the table is not a preference. It is set by what your lender permits, what the title underwriter will insure, and what the state where the document is signed allows. Those three can disagree with each other, which is exactly why this gets asked early.
Power of attorney is the one to plan furthest ahead
A power of attorney used for a real estate closing usually has to be drafted for the transaction, executed properly, and accepted in advance by both the lender and the title company. A general form downloaded the week of closing is frequently rejected, and it is rejected at the point where there is no time left to fix it. If this is your route, the attorney drafting it and the title company accepting it should be talking in the first two weeks.
What still has to happen on your side
Identity verification, which means current identification and sometimes more than one form. Funds, which move by wire and have to be initiated with enough time for them to land rather than to be in transit. And availability, because a remote signing is still a scheduled appointment that somebody has to keep in a different time zone.
The wire is the part to be careful about
Wiring instructions are the single most attacked piece of a real estate transaction, and a remote closing means you are more likely to receive them by email and less likely to be standing in front of someone you recognise. Call the title company on a number you looked up yourself, not one in the message, and confirm the instructions out loud before anything moves. Treat any change in wiring instructions as a reason to verify directly through a trusted contact method.
If you are the one who has already left
Someone local still has to be able to open the house for the inspection and the appraisal, handle whatever the inspection turns up, and deal with what is left inside it. That is a separate piece of work from the closing itself, and the note on what happens to everything in the house covers the part people underestimate.
Raise remote-signing requirements at the beginning of the transaction. The attorney, lender and title company need enough time to agree on the documents and signing method.
An attorney should review a power of attorney and its scope. The lender determines which signing arrangements it accepts for the loan, and the title company confirms the required notarization and documents.
If the move is a job relocation, the executive relocation page covers how the timing usually gets sequenced, and the note on what a relocation package covers sets out what an employer may already be paying for.
This note is general. It is not legal or lending advice, and what applies to your closing depends on your lender, your title company and the law where the documents are signed.