What can go wrong before a closing! BE PREPARED.

I am not a dooms day prepper. I am an optimistic gal, but I recently had an investor ask me what are the things that can go wrong and stop a closing from happening? He is a new investor and I am thinking he was asking me so he could prepare for all of these things that maybe could go wrong and make sure that his closing goes as smooth as possible. It's impossible to prepare for everything, you may find yourself spinning your wheels and doing unnecessary work. It's also why you have a team of people agents, attorneys, accountants, property managers, etc working with you so this weight isn't all on your shoulders. This was my response to him and I thought it might be helpful to others: 

I've seen closings pushed, I have been blessed and haven't witnessed any being outright cancelled.

Reasons that I've seen a closing get delayed:

• Hard money lender bailed at the last minute.
• Appraisal came in low and needed time to fight it or make another plan.
• Appraisal didn't come in on time.
• Survey issue that clouded the title needed to be worked out prior to getting title insurance issued.
• Title search showed liens on the property that were not previously disclosed.Buyer lost his/her job so income was not there anymore.
  Deposit funds were not transferred in time to close on time.
• Lender did not get the final numbers to the settlement agent within the legal window for the settlement agent to be able turn around and issue the closing statement for the buyer to have, I believe that timeline is 48 hours before closing.
• One of the buyers couldn't make it last minute and a power of attorney couldn't be done on time.
• Repairs that were said were going to be done, were not completed as per the agreement, the contractor has to go back in and fix before closing. 
• If the walk through is scheduled too close to closing sometimes it doesn't leave enough time if something wasn't done as agreed upon!

Be prepared so you aren't as scared! Investing can be a scary journey, but surround yourself with the right team and you'll feel a little safer.