closing_document_review v1.0.0

name: closing_document_review description: > Reviewing a closing package before signing: reconciling the settlement statement against signed terms, loan, title, deed, and payoff records, calculation checks line by line, and a question list for the professionals on the deal. Use when someone has a Closing Disclosure, an ALTA or HUD style settlement statement, or a full closing package and wants it checked before they sign, wire funds, or let proceeds disburse.

Closing Document Review

Purpose

Catch money errors while they are still cheap to fix. A closing package contains several documents written by different parties, and each one can be internally tidy while disagreeing with the others. This skill reconciles them against each other: the settlement statement against the signed contract and addenda, the Closing Disclosure against the Loan Estimate, each payoff against its payoff statement, and the deed against the title commitment.

The output is a findings report with a recomputed amount beside every disputed amount, plus one numbered question list addressed to the lender, the closer, and the agent or attorney. The reviewer does not give legal advice, does not renegotiate the deal, and does not tell anyone to sign. The reviewer shows where the papers disagree and what each disagreement costs.

Workflow

1. Inventory the package and stop on missing money evidence

• List every document received, with its date and page count. Work from references/missing-evidence-checklist.md and mark each item Present, Missing, or Not in this deal.
• Treat three gaps as stops: no signed contract or a missing addendum that changes money, no payoff statement for a loan being paid, and no source behind a tax or payoff figure. Report the gap and pause the money review until the document arrives.
• Record the closing date, the disbursement date if it differs, and the date the Closing Disclosure was received. These three dates drive half the checks that follow.

2. Match the header facts across every document

• Compare buyer and seller names, property address, legal description, sale price, loan amount, and file number across the contract, the disclosure, the settlement statement, the title commitment, and the deed draft. Character differences in a name or lot number in a legal description are findings, not typos to wave through.
• Confirm the sale price and every contract credit appear on the settlement statement at the signed amounts. A credit promised in an addendum and missing at closing is one of the most common findings in this review.
• Confirm earnest money appears once, at the receipted amount, credited to the right party, with the holder named.

3. Reconcile line by line with the worksheet

• Build one row per settlement line using references/line-matching-worksheet.md. For each row record the printed amount, the amount on the source document, the difference, and who to ask.
• Re-add every subtotal and total with scripts/reconcile.py sum. Printed totals are claims. A column that does not foot is a finding even when each line looks right.
• Check the two classic doubles: a charge paid before closing that also sits in the amount due at closing, and a deposit subtracted twice in cash to close.
• Recompute cash to close, and seller net if the statement shows it, with scripts/reconcile.py cash-to-close. Report both the printed figure and the recomputed figure.

4. Run the loan checks against the Loan Estimate

• Put every Loan Costs line into its tolerance group before comparing amounts. Zero tolerance covers the creditor charges and required services the borrower could not shop for: an increase there needs a cure for the full increase. The 10 percent cumulative group covers recording fees and required services the borrower shopped for from the creditor list: judge the group total, not single lines, and the cure is only the amount over the 10 percent limit. Prepaids, insurance premiums, and services the borrower chose outside the list have no tolerance cap, so check those against the underlying bill, policy, or invoice instead.
• Run each group with scripts/reconcile.py tolerance and paste the verdict into the worksheet.
• Compare amount, rate, term, product type, and prepayment penalty between the Loan Estimate, the Closing Disclosure, and the note draft. A product change, an added prepayment penalty, or an APR move past its accuracy tolerance means a corrected disclosure and a new three business day review period before closing. Flag that at once, because it moves the closing date.
• Confirm the disclosure timing itself: for most covered loans the borrower must receive the Closing Disclosure three business days before closing, counted on the federal definition of business day, which is not the contract calendar.

5. Recalculate every calculation

• Prepaid interest: per diem is loan amount times rate divided by the divisor printed on the disclosure, times the days from closing through the end of the closing month. Run scripts/reconcile.py prepaid and compare the day count first, the amount second. A wrong day count is the usual error.
• Prorations: daily rate is the period amount divided by the days in the period, times the days the contract charges to that party. Run scripts/reconcile.py proration per item for taxes, HOA dues, insurance, rent, and utilities. Use the amount on the tax certificate or bill in the file, not last year figure carried forward, and use the day count and who pays through which day exactly as the contract states. State law and local custom vary here, so the contract in the file controls.
• Initial escrow payment: check it item by item against the taxes and premiums it funds, and keep it separate from prepaids. Prepaid interest sits in Prepaids, the initial escrow deposit sits in its own section, and a figure placed in the wrong section can move a tolerance total.
• Points and lender credits: a point is one percent of the loan amount. Multiply it out and compare with the dollar line, and confirm a promised lender credit appears as a credit, not buried inside a reduced fee line.

6. Check payoffs, title, and the deed

• For each payoff, compare four things: the lender or lienholder name, the account or loan identifier as far as it is shown, the amount, and the good through date. The good through date must fall on or after the disbursement date. If closing or funding slips past it, adjust with the per diem printed on the payoff statement using scripts/reconcile.py payoff-adjust, or ask for an updated statement. Never estimate a payoff from a monthly statement balance, which leaves out interest accrued since the statement date and any fees the payoff statement adds.
• Confirm the payoff payment instructions in the file match the instructions the closer verified through a trusted channel. Payoff wire instructions are a known fraud target, and this review never repeats full account numbers in its report.
• Read the title commitment requirements and exceptions against the package: every requirement either met or assigned, no new exception the buyer did not agree to, and a clearing path for each lien being paid.
• Compare the deed draft with the commitment: grantor, grantee, vesting, and legal description. A deed that transfers a different parcel description than the one insured is a stop.

7. Write the findings and the question list

• Order findings by money and by whether they block signing: expired or short payoffs and deed or title mismatches first, tolerance violations next, calculation errors next, unmatched small fees last.
• Write one question list for all professionals, grouped by owner: lender questions, closer questions, agent or attorney questions. Each question names the document, the line, the printed amount, the recomputed or source amount, and the exact fix asked for, such as a corrected disclosure, a corrected statement, or an updated payoff.
• Study references/worked-reviews.md before the first real review. It shows a clean file cleared with notes only, and a second file with an expired payoff, two tolerance violations, a prepaid interest day count error, and a stale tax figure, each with the calculator output that proves it.

Output Contract

Deliver one report with these parts, in this order:

1. Package inventory: documents received with dates, documents missing with an owner for each, and any stop declared.
2. Header match table: each shared fact, the value that controls, and every document that disagrees.
3. Line matching worksheet, completed, with a difference shown for every unmatched line, including zero differences stated as matched.
4. Calculation checks: for prepaid interest, each proration, each tolerance group, and cash to close, the formula inputs, the calculator output, and the verdict.
5. Findings list, ordered as in step 7, each with the dollar effect and the document evidence.
6. Question list grouped by lender, closer, and agent or attorney, numbered across the whole list so replies can cite numbers.
7. Sign or do not sign summary written as a factual summary of open findings, never as legal advice: which findings must clear before signing, which can clear at the table with a corrected page, and which are notes to keep after closing, such as watching for the lien release.

Operating Rules

• Verify every amount against a document in the package or a calculator run. A fee that looks normal for the market is still unverified if no invoice, schedule, or prior disclosure supports it.
• Never invent a typical fee, a typical timeline, or a local custom. If the contract, state law, or local practice controls a point and the file does not say, ask the question and leave the point open.
• Use the day count, divisor, and rounding the documents themselves print. Loans differ between a 365 and a 360 divisor, and prorations differ on who owns the closing day. Importing a convention from another file creates the errors this review exists to catch.
• Keep personal identifiers out of the report beyond what matching requires. Refer to accounts by lender and last digits as shown, and never print full account numbers, wire instructions, or identification numbers.
• This review is document checking, not legal advice, tax advice, or a title opinion. Route legal questions, title objections, and disputes over contract meaning to the attorney or broker on the file, and say so in the report.
• If a corrected disclosure or statement arrives, rerun the full worksheet on the new copy. Corrections fix one line and move another often enough that a spot check is not a review.
• Do not mark a file clean because the parties are in a hurry. If a stop finding is open, the report says so plainly and names what would clear it.