What paperwork should you keep?

None of us likes any extra paperwork that we need to keep.  I am writing this because 2 times this year I have had a seller who needed the closing paperwork from when they purchased their home, and did not have it.  In both cases the owners had refinanced their home and thought they did not need the paperwork from the original purchase any longer.  In both cases, this purging of this old paperwork was a costly mistake.

Both parties lived in a property with an HOA.  For most HOA’s you put in what is called Working Capital when purchase a home.  Working Capital is like a reserve, it is collected at closing from the buyer and returned to them when they sell the home, as it is then collected by the new buyer.  The sellers in both of these cases had to show their closing paperwork from when they purchased their homes to prove how much had been put in to Working Capital.  Since they could not produce the paperwork prior to closing, they received nothing, the HOA kept their Working Capital.  I believe this is wrong, it should be the HOA management companies responsibility to account for the working capital.   The seller wanted to close, so they just allowed the HOA to keep the amount since they could not prove it.

Another example I can show is that a seller purchased a town home in 2009 from Fannie Mae, Refinanced it in 2011, and then in 2013 for some reason the lender that had foreclosed in 2009 decided to file another Public Trustees deed with the county.  The seller did not have their closing paperwork that would have had information on the title company that had insured the title.  The lender who had filed the deed in 2013 was also  no longer in business.  We were able to clear it up, but had there been a claim, we would have needed to know who the insurance company was to make the claim.  Below is a list of documents you should keep after the closing as long as you have the home!!!

Items to Keep

Purchase Contract and all Disclosures

Deed

Bill of Sale

Note and Deed of Trust

Truth in Lending

Title Insurance (to be added later as it is mailed to you shortly after closing)

HUD Settlement Statement