Your contract is the authority, not this page. Every date below is arithmetic on the dates and day counts you type in. This page holds no default inspection period, no assumed closing window and no table of state deadlines, because all three are set by the agreement in front of you and by the law where the property sits. Read your contract, and ask your broker or a lawyer in your state about anything that turns on it. This is general information, not legal advice.
1. What your contract says
The date the last party signed. Most day counts run from here.
As the contract states it, not the date you hope for.
Hides the items the other side owns.
Your contract defines this, and forms differ. It is also not the same definition the Closing Disclosure rule uses.
Day counts from acceptance
Days, for example 10. Leave blank to skip.
Days. Only used when the sale is financed.
Days. Only used when the sale is financed.
Days. Often 1 to 5, but the contract says.
Days. A commitment, a policy, or an abstract and opinion.
2. The checklist
Fill in the dates above and every line below gets its own calendar date.
Week one · the clock starts
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An addendum nobody signed is a common reason a file is kicked back at the closing table.
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Whoever is not on this distribution is the one who later says they never had the contract.
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Record where the money is held, and who holds it.
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Late disclosure hands the other side a reason to walk. What has to be disclosed is set where the property is — ask your broker.
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Required on most housing built before 1978, and the period runs from before the buyer is obligated — so it belongs at the front of the file, not at closing.
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A deadline that lives only in the contract is a deadline nobody is watching.
Inspections and the response
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Suggested, not a contract date: a third of the way into your inspection period. Radon, septic, well, sewer scope, pest, roof, structural.
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Most forms turn on delivery, and the contract says what delivery means and to whom. Send it in writing and keep the proof.
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Get it into a signed amendment — a credit the closing agent has nothing signed for may not reach the statement.
Financing and appraisal
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An appraisal nobody ordered is a quiet way a closing date slips.
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What your contract requires for an extension, and by when, is in the contract. Read that clause before this date, not after it.
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On a first-lien loan on a dwelling this is set by Regulation B, not by the contract.
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On a consumer mortgage. Counted in business days as the regulation defines them — Saturdays count, Sundays and federal holidays do not — which is not the basis this page uses. Work that date out on the Closing Disclosure deadline calculator.
Title and the closing file
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What counts as title evidence and who pays for it is set by the contract and by local practice — a commitment, a policy, or an abstract with an attorney’s opinion.
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A payoff quote expires, and a lien nobody asked about surfaces at the title search rather than at the closing table.
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These are issued on the association’s timetable, not yours, and they are a common reason a closing date moves.
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A payoff is only a payoff once the lender quotes it, and an invoice that arrives on closing day does not make the statement.
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Both sides. Where possession is not at closing, these follow possession rather than this date.
Closing week
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Credits, prorations, the commission split and every fee. An error is cheaper to fix here than at the table.
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Where possession is not at closing, the arrangement belongs in a signed document, not in a text message.
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Confirm the repairs were done and that what conveys is still there.
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Wire fraud in this window targets exactly this step. Never act on instructions that arrive by email alone, even from a known address.
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Signed, funded, and recorded where recording is part of closing.
After closing
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Your broker and your state commission each set a retention period. When yours starts, and how long it runs, is theirs to state.
Ticks are remembered in this browser. The dates are not, so re-enter them to put the calendar back on the list.
How the dates are worked out
Each day count you type is added to the acceptance date. On calendar days every day counts. On business days only Monday to Friday count, and a weekend is skipped without consuming any of the count.
Holidays are not skipped. Which holidays matter is a question about your contract and about the offices involved, and silently moving a deadline past a list of federal holidays would move a date your contract did not move. If a computed date lands on a holiday, treat it as a date to raise rather than one to assume.
The items measured backwards from the closing date instead — the closing agent's figures, the payoff and association documents, the utilities and insurance, the statement review, the possession handover, the walkthrough and the wire confirmation — are working practice rather than anything a rule requires. They are counted in calendar days whichever basis you pick above, so that they stay put against the closing date rather than sliding a week earlier when you switch to business days. So is the suggested inspection-ordering date, which is simply a third of the way into the inspection period you entered.
On a short close some of those fall before the offer was even accepted. Rather than print a date from before your contract existed, the checklist puts those on the acceptance date and says so at the top.
If a deadline you enter lands after your closing date, the checklist says so at the top rather than printing the date as though it were fine. That is almost always either a day count read off the wrong line or a contract that counts days differently from the basis selected.
Some items carry no date, on purpose
A few deadlines on a real file are set by a rule rather than by your contract: the Closing Disclosure wait, the copy of the appraisal the buyer is owed, and the lead-based paint disclosure period. All three appear on the checklist when the questions above say they apply, and none of them is counted here — each is marked “date set by rule, not by your contract” instead.
The Closing Disclosure wait is counted in business days as the regulation defines them, where a Saturday counts and a Sunday or federal holiday does not — a third definition, different from both options above. The Closing Disclosure deadline calculator on this site already implements that count, and sending you there is better than implementing a regulation's arithmetic a second time in a second file where the two can quietly disagree.
The lead-paint period runs from a point in the transaction rather than from the acceptance date, so a day count from acceptance would be the wrong shape for it.
What this page does not do
- It does not know your state's rules. Who orders title evidence, what title evidence even is, whether a lawyer attends, who records the deed and what has to be disclosed all vary, and none of it is assumed here.
- It does not replace the contract. Where a date here and a date in the agreement disagree, the agreement is right and this page has a typo in it.
- It does not track delivery. Most contract deadlines turn on delivery of a notice, and what counts as delivery is defined by the contract. A tick here is a note to yourself, not proof of service.
- It is not a compliance system. Your broker's file requirements and your state commission's retention rules are theirs to state, not this page's.
Read next
- Closing Disclosure deadline calculator : the federal three-business-day wait before closing on a consumer mortgage, counted the way the regulation counts it.
- What transaction management software costs, by vendor : what seven vendors publish as their price, each with the date it was read, including the one that publishes nothing, and what the published ones come to at your seat and closing counts.
- Iowa contract-to-close checklist : for an Iowa property, use that one as well. It carries the state's own paperwork — abstract continuation, attorney title opinion, Groundwater Hazard Statement and Declaration of Value.
- Iowa closing timeline builder : for an Iowa property, that one takes each deadline as its own date and places the state and federal filings where the statute puts them.
- Property tax proration calculator : the seller's share of a tax, dues or rent period that straddles the closing date, and which side is credited.
- Seller net sheet calculator : what the seller walks away with once every line on the statement is in.
- What the Closing Disclosure delivery rule says : the rule behind the undated item on the checklist, quoted.
- What the lead-based paint disclosure rule requires : the pre-1978 item, and the inspection opportunity that goes with it.
- All rules explained for agents : the rest of the library.