transaction_coordination v1.0.0

name: transaction_coordination description: > Coordinating a property transaction from signed contract to closing with one shared deadline register: extract every date from the contract, apply its counting rules, assign owners across buyer, seller, lender, and title, flag dependencies, send client updates that name the next step and who owes it, and recover in writing when a date is missed. Use when someone is under contract, acting as a transaction coordinator, tracking contingencies, or trying to stop a closing from slipping.

Transaction Coordination

Purpose

Keep one transaction moving from an executed contract to a funded closing without a missed deadline. The work is not a timeline poster and a separate set of update templates. It is one register that drives both: every task, owner, dependency, and client update reads from the same rows, so an update can never promise a date the register does not hold.

This skill is coordination, not legal advice. The signed contract, its addenda, and state law control. A coordinator flags risk early and routes legal questions to the broker or attorney named on the file.

Workflow

1. Open the file on the effective date

• Record the effective date first and define it exactly as the contract does. On many state forms it is the date the last party signs and that acceptance is communicated, not the first signature date. Every count in the register starts here, so a one day error here shifts every deadline by one day.

• Collect the full contract, all addenda, and all contact details in one pass: buyer, seller, both agents, lender, title or escrow, inspector, appraiser, HOA contact, and insurance agent. Note who holds earnest money and the escrow or file number title assigns.

• Distribute the executed contract to lender and title within the time the contract or office policy requires, and confirm receipt in writing. Do not assume a sent email opened the title file.

2. Build the deadline register from the contract

• Extract every dated obligation line by line, including blanks filled in by hand. For each one record the contract paragraph, the trigger, the number of days, the counting rule, the computed date, the owner, and the evidence that proves completion. Use references/deadline-register-template.md as the register. One register per transaction, shared by everyone who touches the file.

• Cover at minimum these rows when the contract contains them: earnest money delivery and receipt, loan application, seller disclosures, inspection period and objection deadline, repair response and resolution, title commitment delivery and objection window, survey, HOA document delivery and review, appraisal order and delivery, financing or loan approval deadline, rate lock expiry, Closing Disclosure receipt deadline, final walkthrough, closing date, and possession.

• Never substitute a typical range for a contract term. Inspection windows often run 7 to 14 days and financed closings often run 30 to 45 days, but those are planning context only. The register date always comes from the signed document in front of you.

3. Apply the counting rules, in writing

• Complete references/counting-rules-worksheet.md for the file before computing any date. Record whether the contract counts calendar days or business days, what day 1 is, what happens when the last day lands on a weekend or a legal holiday, what time of day a deadline expires, and how notice must be delivered.

• Use the contract computation clause first. Common patterns differ by state form: many forms count calendar days starting the day after the effective date, some roll a landing date that falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday to the next business day, and some roll only one named deadline such as earnest money. Do not import a roll rule from another state form.

• Run the federal disclosure clocks separately from contract clocks. They use their own definitions and do not bend to the contract calendar. See the Operating Rules for the two clocks that matter most.

• Compute every date with scripts/deadline_calc.py or by hand from the worksheet, then have a second person or a second pass check the closing date, the inspection deadline, and the earnest money date. Show the count, not just the result, so anyone can audit it.

4. Assign owners and dependencies

• Give every register row exactly one owner by role: buyer, seller, lender, title, buyer agent, listing agent, or coordinator. A row owned by everyone is owned by no one.

• Link dependencies in the register. Examples that hold on most files: appraisal cannot complete before lender orders it and access is arranged, title objections cannot be sent before the commitment arrives, clear to close cannot issue while underwriting conditions are open, and the Closing Disclosure clock cannot start until the lender issues it. When a predecessor slips, the register flags every successor row the same day, not at the successor deadline.

• Set alerts at three points per hard deadline: a working alert early enough to fix a problem, a warning alert one to two days out, and the deadline itself. Escalate to the agent and the client when the warning alert passes with no evidence of completion.

5. Work the phases in parallel

• Kickoff, days 1 to 3 in a typical file: earnest money, loan application, title opened, inspection scheduled, disclosures requested. These launch together. Waiting for one to finish before starting the next burns the shortest windows in the contract.

• Investigation: inspection, specialist inspections, repair negotiation, and HOA and disclosure review. Track the objection deadline, not just the inspection date. An inspection done on time with an objection sent late protects no one.

• Financing and title, in parallel through the middle: appraisal, underwriting conditions, title commitment, survey, lien and permit issues, and insurance. Ask lender and title for status in writing on a fixed cadence, twice a week on a 30 day file, and log the answer against the register row it affects.

• Pre-closing: confirm the Closing Disclosure receipt date against the closing date, verify wire instructions by phone using a number from a trusted source and never from the email that carried the instructions, schedule the final walkthrough, confirm funds, utilities, and possession terms, and check that every contingency release or waiver is signed and in the file.

6. Send updates that name the next step and who owes it

• Write every client update from the register, in this order: what closed since the last update with its date, what is next with its date, who owes it by name or role, and what the client must do or decide, if anything. No update goes out as a vague reassurance.

• Use this shape, filled from register rows:

Subject: [Property address] update, [date]: [next milestone] due [date]

Done: Earnest money receipted by title on [date]. Inspection completed on [date]. Next: Seller repair response is due [date], owed by the seller through the listing agent. You owe: Nothing this week. Your next decision is the inspection objection, due [date]. Risk: Appraisal has not been ordered yet. The coordinator asked the lender again on [date] and will escalate on [date] if it is still unordered.

• Send updates on a fixed cadence, weekly at minimum and on the day any hard deadline passes or slips. If there is a problem, say it in the same update that reports progress. Clients forgive bad news delivered early. They do not forgive surprises at the closing table.

7. Recover a missed or at-risk date in writing

• Act before the deadline when a slip is visible, not after it passes. The full play is in the worked example in references/worked-transaction.md. The short version:

1. State the facts in writing to all parties the same day: the deadline, the contract paragraph, what happened, and what is still possible.
2. Check what the contract actually does on a miss. Options differ: a contingency may be treated as waived, the other party may need to send a notice to perform, or a time is of the essence clause may treat the miss as a material breach. Do not guess which one applies. Route it to the broker or attorney.
3. Ask for an extension as a signed written amendment or addendum with a new specific date and any new terms. Verbal agreement does not extend a written contract deadline.
4. Protect the money position while the amendment is pending: say in writing that no waiver is intended, and do not let the client act as if the extension already exists.
5. Update the register, recompute every dependent date including the Closing Disclosure clock and any rate lock expiry, and send a client update that names the new next step and owner.
6. Log the cause in the file: late order, slow third party, missing document, or a counting error. A cause logged once prevents the same miss on the next file.

Output Contract

One coordinated transaction delivers:

• A completed deadline register in the format in references/deadline-register-template.md, with every contract date computed, owned, and evidenced.
• A completed counting rules worksheet for that contract.
• A dated update log where each update names what closed, what is next, and who owes it.
• Signed contingency releases, amendments for any changed date, and the earnest money receipt, all in one complete file at closing.
• A closing check: Closing Disclosure receipt date proven against the closing date, wire instructions verified by phone, walkthrough done, and funds and possession confirmed.

Operating Rules

1. The contract controls. If this skill, a checklist, or a typical timeline disagrees with the signed contract and its addenda, the contract wins, every time.
2. Federal clock one: the lender must give the Loan Estimate within three business days of a completed application, under the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure rule the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau enforces.
3. Federal clock two: the buyer must receive the Closing Disclosure at least three business days before consummation, which is usually signing. For this clock a business day is every calendar day except Sundays and federal public holidays, so Saturdays count. The receipt day itself is not counted. If the disclosure is not handed over in person, the buyer is treated as receiving it three business days after it is sent, so a mailed disclosure needs about a week of runway before closing.
4. Time is of the essence changes the stakes. Where the contract carries that clause, treat every date as a hard stop that can cost contingency rights or earnest money. Where it does not, still work to the date. Only the broker or attorney calls what a miss means legally.
5. Nothing counts as done without evidence in the file: a receipt, a signed release, a delivery confirmation, or a dated written status from the owner of the row.
6. Extensions are paper or they are nothing. A signed amendment with a new date, obtained before the old date expires wherever possible.
7. Verify wire instructions by phone before any funds move, using a number obtained independently of the instructions themselves.
8. Never speak for the lender, title, or the other party in an update. Report what they said, when they said it, and what remains unconfirmed as unconfirmed.