We're about 3 weeks into escrow on the sale of my landscaping supply yard. The escrow officer is nice enough but I feel like I'm always the one chasing her for updates. Is there a better system than just emailing every couple days asking 'any news'? I don't want to be that guy but I also don't want to be blindsided by a missed deadline. What do you all do?
How to track your deal status with the escrow officer
Honestly the best thing I did was ask her upfront for a checklist with target dates. Once it's in writing you can just reference it instead of nagging.
you can track it by not calling them every day lol. escrow takes time. everybody thinks their deal is the only one on the officer's desk.
We used a shared spreadsheet with the buyer's agent and escrow. Columns for each contingency, who owns it, due date, status. It felt a little extra at first but it killed Like 90% of the back-and-forth emails. Also helped when one date slipped because everyone could see it coming.
Second the spreadsheet idea. Ours was shared with the title company too. The officer actually thanked us because she stopped getting the same question from three different people.
Escrow officer here (not yours). We don't mind a weekly check-in emAil on a set day. What wears us down is the random 'just checking in!' every 36 hours. Pick a day, ask for a status on the specific items, and you'll get a much better answer.
That's helpful, thanks. So a standing Monday email with 3-4 specific line items rather than a vague 'any update'.
or just let the professionals do their job and read the closing statement when it comes. worked fine for me twice.
Twice is a small sample size. Missed deadlines are expensive.
Ask for the escrow number and set up online access if your title company has a portal. Mine had one and I could see documents uploaded in real time. Way less emailing
Portals are hit or miss. Half the small independent offices still run on pdfs and carrier pigeon. Don't be shocked if there isn't one.
Also worth asking who the backup contact is. Our officer went on vacation mid-escrow and nobody told us. That was a fun week.
Backup contact. Hadn't thought of that. Adding it to the Monday email list.