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California is a very chill state.  They're very libertarian, live-and-let-live folks, where people just kind of do their own thing and everyone else thinks that's great.

That same philosophy applies to closing.  In other states, closing is a bit of a theatrical production: all the actors assemble in one room, walk through a ritual of signing, papers are passed back and forth, checks are written, and at the end you own a home.  In California, it's way more relaxed.  In the Bay Area, title companies also handle escrow duties.  I could show up whenever I wanted, sign my papers, and be done with it.

We were with Fidelity National Title company.  I'm still not clear on exactly how we ended up with them, whether it's the seller's choice, the lender's, or some other decision.  Their office was in Burlingame, decently close to the property in question, and also within easy walking distance of the Burlingame train station.  I had dropped by there earlier to drop off a check for my 3% earnest money deposit.  Now, I ambled over about a week before closing to take care of signing.

There were a ton of documents, but according to my escrow officer, it's actually quite a bit less than normal - apparently Provident isn't as paper-happy as other lenders.  We sat down in a conference room and went through it.  For each page, Kathy described what it was about and pointed out the most important points, then indicated where I should sign or initial.  In a few cases I had questions or scanned to make sure the numbers were right, but for the most part everything was really straightforward.  It definitely helped that I had seen a lot of the important documents before, like the appraisal, the Truth-In-Lending disclosure, and so on.  A lot of the other stuff was more or less boilerplate: I agreed to pay back the lender, I agreed to keep the property in good condition, I agreed to notify the lender if any adverse action affected the property, and so on. 

I initially blanched when I saw some of the fees, but upon further reflection, I realized that they were actually lower than the initial estimates I had received.  I don't remember the exact figures, but I think that the lender's title insurance had been estimated at $2100 and my title insurance at $1900; the actual figures were more like $1800 and $1700.  There's a lot of dumb stuff in there, like an "email doc fee" of $50, but even with those I was coming in under budget.  I'd read earlier that, with the recent financial reform laws and improved truth-in-lending laws, stated fees were increasing because lenders no longer have the leeway to jack them up at closing.  Which works for me - under-promise and over-deliver is one of the very best policies there is.

The whole process took less than half an hour.  The sellers would be signing their own documents at some other time.  The lender would sign the funding documents on the 9th.  Everything is written to be contingent on everything else, so once everyone has signed off, stuff just triggers, and the deal is done.  Less dramatic, but way more relaxing, just the way I like it.

I asked Kathy about the closing costs.  There was a sum - yes, a pretty large sum - that I still had to pay, which would cover the remainder of my down payment and all the fees.  This needs to be paid in "ready money", and I had just learned that Provident does not offer cashier's checks.  They do offer "corporate checks" and money orders, but Kathy said that neither would work for this transaction.  Therefore, I would have to wire.

I've received wires before - it's how Apress handles advances and royalties - but hadn't sent one.  Provident has an excellent online banking system, and I tried to use their "Contact Us" section - which includes a helpful option called "Wire Transfers" - to schedule one.  They politely wrote back, included a form that I would need to fax or fill out and bring in.  Wires over $50k need to be done in person, so that's what I would be doing.