What Not To Do After Closing On A House: Avoid Common Mistakes

You’ve finally made it. You’ve closed on your new house. You won’t forget the day because it likely involved you and several other people – including real estate agents, title company representatives, bankers, the sellers and yourself – sitting around a table watching you sign countless documents. After closing, the house is yours and you have a mortgage.

But your work is not done. While closing is the end of something, owning your new house is the start of something else, and you should be prepared to take some crucial next steps.

Also, we should be clear that the closing is different from having your offer accepted, which is something that takes place first, usually about 6 weeks before you close. Having your offer accepted is entirely different from closing, and it has several crucial dos and don’ts you should be aware of, as well.

But here are several suggestions of what not to do after closing on your new house.

1. Don’t Forget To Call A Locksmith

Changing all the locks is a first priority at your new house, especially before you start moving in your things. Even if the prior owners seem honest, you won’t know how many people they entrusted with a spare key.

Change out every lock to the house, plus any locks on doors of an outbuilding, such as a detached garage. Simplify your life by having every door opened with the same key. If there is an automatic garage door opener, ask the previous owners for all remote garage door openers. If the garage door has a keypad opener (typically on an exterior wall near the door), make sure you get the code and then change the code to something you’ll easily remember.

The cost of a new lock can be as little as $50 for a simple DIY lock replacement or several hundred dollars if you hire a locksmith for a complex install. What type of door, the number of doors and the number of locks per door can factor into the overall cost. An electronic keypad lock can be safer than a traditional lock and key because it’s harder for a burglar to guess your passcode than pick the lock. You also won’t have to hide a key, which is often easy to find for someone determined to get into your home.

2. Don’t Skip Following Up On Your Home Inspection

By the time you reach closing, several weeks may have gone by since your home inspection. Unless you know that problems identified in the inspection were remedied by the seller in the time since, assume that whatever issues your inspector discovered are still there. Your inspector would have supplied you with a detailed report on everything they found. If you’ve misplaced it, call them and ask for a copy and keep it with all your important house papers.

How you prioritize which fixes come first is important. Anything that involves safety (such as an electrical problem) or primary functionality (like a new furnace) should be the first things you address. After those, attack the ones you can otherwise live with once you have the time and funds available to knock out.

If you have the resources and a living situation that gives you some time before you have to move in, after closing is the perfect time for projects large and small. You may own the house but you don’t live in it or have any of your possessions moved in. Contractors can move around freely, make noise and raise dust to their hearts content  – it won’t bother you because you don’t live there yet.

Projects that are great to do in an empty house include drywall repairs, removal of any walls, painting and especially refinishing natural wood floors. Sanding and sealing wood floors is a very dusty job that takes several days and multiple applications of chemical sealant that you don’t want to breathe. Tackle as many of these projects as you can, followed by a thorough cleaning, and then move in.

3. Don’t Refinance Right Away

There can be any number of reasons why you might want to refinance your house after closing  – and sometimes they come up relatively quickly. You might come into some extra money and wish to pay a larger down payment to eliminate PMI. Or perhaps you’ve paid off some debts and have a better credit score.

Most lenders, however, have a specified amount of time after closing before they will allow a refinance. This period is usually about 6 – 12 months, depending on the type of loan.

One of the principal reasons for refinancing is a drop in interest rates. Many mortgage experts say that a rate cut must be at least 0.5% to 1.0% before the lowering of your mortgage payment is enough to justify refinancing.

Another reason to think twice about refinancing right away is closing costs. Refinancing a mortgage is not free. You can expect to pay anywhere from 2% to 6% of the loan principal amount in closing costs when you refinance. This is on top of a similar amount you just paid to close your current mortgage. None of these costs – which can easily run into the thousands of dollars – are going toward your house. They pay for all the services required for your loan application to go through.

4. Don’t Lose Track Of Important Documents

We talked about the marathon signing session you had at closing. These closing documents detail your ownership of the property, your commitment to your lender, proof of insurance and whatever documentation is required by your state. They include your title documents, deed, mortgage note and certificate of occupancy. Keep these documents all together in a safe place. Some people invest in a fireproof safe to store documents and other valuables.

5. Don’t Forget To Update Providers With Your New Address

Once you’ve closed, it’s important that you update your various service providers with your new address. Even if your primary interaction with these institutions is online and through email, they should also have your proper mailing address on file. In most cases you will have an online account that has your key information, so you can usually update your address without contacting them.

In the case of utilities, however, you can’t begin service until they have your new address. In some cases the same utility will be your provider at the new address, in which case you can keep the same account. You will need to let them know the start date of your new house and the end date of the old one.

Sometimes we can forget how many accounts and relationships we’ve set up over the years, but they fall under some of these categories:

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