Every experience is different and I am just sharing mine. As background, I have experience as a project manager/business analyst/tester within IT and am highly organized. I keep notes on things. I am, however, pretty easygoing and not in a rush for things to happen nor am I particularly demanding. I like to be informed on status and to just have a good feeling that progress is being made.
My first purchase was with Fidelity using First American. My second purchase was and third purchase is with another company (the same one for both) but also using First American.
With my first purchase, there were special circumstances with the sellers related to their ability to sell and that complicated things a little bit. My contract was submitted on 4/13/17 and we completed the closing on 7/28/17. While I will never know for sure, I do not think the special circumstances are the complete cause for things taking as long as they did. There was some churn between 4/13 and when I was told that I passed ROFR on 6/5/17 that I think could have been reduced. I didn’t receive closing papers until 7/18/17 so there was more churn there.
For my second purchase, my contract was submitted on 10/29/17 and we completed the closing on 12/12/17.
For my third purchase, my contract was submitted on 2/26/18. I had my closing papers on 3/16/18. When I received my last update from First American, they were simply waiting on the seller to return their documents.
When I look at my notes for my first transaction, it is a very long list. I see that I only received updates and saw forward movement when I followed up. I often see that I wrote down that they indicated that they were just checking on the status. I saw some comments on follow up with First American once we got to the part where they had tasks to complete. First American did provide me regular updates once I received the closing papers.
When I look at my notes for my second and third transactions, the lists are much shorter. I received updates on a regular basis from both the broker and First American.
My situation may be unique but I would likely approach things differently with Fidelity in the future and follow up on a regular basis rather than just doing so when I hadn’t heard anything.