When closing on a house.......

[The Mystery Machine]

There is insurance built into the closing costs to protect the buyer.

I would imagine, since your area does a 30 day from closing to possession.

I wonder why they do that?

We have bought 4 homes now, 3 in MO and 1 in TX and always took possession immediately after closing.

 

[AKL_Megs]

We got the keys the second we signed our lives away! Never heard of it any other way, but who knows!

 

[tinatark]

Your sales contract should dictate possession - either immediate, or within X number of days. Too many things can and often do go wrong during the time between contract and close to expect the current owners to be out at closing. When we bought our house, we gave the current owners 3 days to be out because they lived here, and were closing on their new home after we closed (they got $) on ours. When we sold our house, we had already moved out and were able to dictate "immediate possession" in the sales contract.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Your sales contract should dictate possession - either immediate, or within X number of days. Too many things can and often do go wrong during the time between contract and close to expect the current owners to be out at closing. When we bought our house, we gave the current owners 3 days to be out because they lived here, and were closing on their new home after we closed (they got $) on ours. When we sold our house, we had already moved out and were able to dictate "immediate possession" in the sales contract.

Really, I would think it is the opposite?

The sellers are out, you do your final walkthru and then you go to your closing.

It was really eye opening to learn that it doesn't always happen like that.

 

[lynxstch]

I would never close on a house that still had the sellers living in it or having any of their stuff in it. Too much liability risk. Just saying.

when we bought our first house, the sellers requested a MONTH after the closing to move out..our realtor told us it was a really bad idea..WE would be responsible for everything in the house, if they got injured, if they had any 'accident's, if anything went wrong in the house, if we had settled and were the legal owners, then it would all fall on us...
In the end we postponed the closing 2 weeks to give them time to move out...it was still a bad idea..they left, left the house a mess,at that time you didn't get a cursory 'walk thru' the day of the closing to see what condition it was in!)...they left so much junk that we had to hire a dumpster (at that time, money was left in an escrow account to cover such things), and the previous owners were so mad at us for not giving them the time they wanted...(or the ridiculous things they asked for in the sale..such as full grown huckleberry trees in the back year..I mean come on, what were they gonna do, uproot full grown sky high trees to take with them to New Hampshire?..lol)..that they cut the phone wires..then tucked them back in so it looked like they were still intact..we had the phone co. out to turn the phones on..and it took them 3 days to find out why nothing was working..they were furious also..and ended up going after the previous owners for malicious damage..and they won!
So please, it's better to wait a couple/few more weeks, and have the house be empty so you can inspect it before the closing..and when you have the keys..your house is YOUR house..(and immediately change all the locks as another poster suggested!)
Good luck..hope it turns out to be your dream home for a long time!