Thursday Is the Best Day to Close a Sale

I agree with Robert Bruss (“What Is the Best Day to Close a Home Sale?� Real Estate Q&A;, Sept. 25). There is no best day to close the sale. But there is a best day to schedule a day for closing, and this is a Thursday.

Here’s why:

It’s two days before the day on which everyone expects the sale to close. Escrow has had all the documents signed and everything looks great for a closing on time, but then, after lunch, the escrow officer gets a call and the lender now has to also have the seller’s signature too on some silly yellow form to put in their file before they will fund and funding has to be on the day before closing.

The escrow officer calls the seller’s home and finds out the seller just left and won’t be back ‘til dusk.

The escrow officer notifies all concerned that there may be a delay in getting the sale closed and, if she thinks she has the slightest chance, she will get on the phone and try to talk the lender into modifying this requirement. Few people know just how hard escrow officers work.

With Thursday as your target you have Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to get the last-minute things in shape. If there does happen to be a delay you’ve still got Friday on which to close the sale.

JOHN LASCELLES

Los Angeles

The writer is a real estate broker.