What Can Still Go Wrong Two Weeks Before Closing?

Quite a lot, though rarely without warning. Loan denials cause the most failures, trailed by appraisal gaps, title defects, insurance declines, and stalled condo or HOA approval. One phishing email can erase a buyer's closing funds entirely. Exposure tracks the deal itself, so a cash purchase past the inspection period sits far safer than a financed condo.

Nothing Is Done Until the Money Lands

Asked what remains at risk this late, Larry answers without hedging. On the Discover South Florida Podcast, Larry Mastropieri put it in five words.

"Most everything. Everything can go wrong."

Experienced agents therefore treat funding confirmation differently than paperwork milestones, and he follows a habit on every transaction.

"I always say nothing's done until it's done. Even when we say congratulations, the buyer signed, title has the money, we're funded."

His sequence adds one more step that most agents skip.

"The team will text you, congratulations, we're funded. Then I will text you, let me know when you got the money. You'll text me back, I got the money. And then I'll call you and be like, now congratulations."

That distinction matters because funded and received are not the same moment. Sellers across Palm Beach County have celebrated a signing only to spend another day waiting on a transfer.

The $400,000 Wire That Went to the Wrong Country

Larry watched this unfold on a deal where he represented the seller, and it started four days before closing.

"They had the final figures. They knew what they had to wire. They sent the wire, $300,000, $400,000. Hey, did you get the money? No, didn't get the money."

The destination turned out not to be the title company.

"They wired near $400,000 to the wrong place. The buyer received an email from some shady phishing email that said, send the money here, we're ready for closing. And they just said, okay, send the money, which is insane."

The damage reached well beyond the stolen funds themselves. Nobody knew whether the buyer could still close, since the cash needed for the purchase had vanished.

The Two Checks That Would Have Caught It

Larry names both, and neither takes more than a few minutes.

"You call people before you send $400,000. Or you check to make sure that information is the same as the money you sent when you wired the deposit."

Use a phone number you already have from earlier in the transaction, never one printed in the email requesting funds. Treat any change to wire instructions as fraudulent until a live voice confirms otherwise.

If a Wire Already Left Your Account

Speed determines everything once money moves, and that window lasts only hours.

• Call your bank's fraud department immediately and request a wire recall.
• Notify the receiving bank and ask that the account be frozen.
• File at ic3.gov so the FBI Recovery Asset Team can act.
• Ask your bank about the Financial Fraud Kill Chain, which applies to international wires of $50,000 or more reported within 72 hours.
• File a police report and preserve every email and confirmation.

Recovery odds fall sharply after the first day, and buyers across Broward County have learned that the hard way. Funds reported within 24 hours may still sit in the receiving account, while money moved through secondary accounts becomes nearly impossible to trace.

Which Problems Actually Derail Deals?

National survey data keeps the panic in proportion. Roughly 14% of contracts experience delayed settlements, while about 5% to 7% get terminated outright, and those figures have stayed remarkably stable.

Most trouble clusters into a short list of causes.

• Loan denial or last-minute underwriting conditions the buyer cannot satisfy.
• Appraisal shortfalls, which delay roughly 6% to 7% of contracts nationally.
• Title defects, including liens, judgments, probate gaps, and boundary disputes.
• Insurance obstacles, whether pricing shock, carrier declines, or a storm-related binding pause.
• Condo or HOA approval denied, delayed, or held up by missing association documents.
• Walkthrough disputes over repairs, condition, or items removed from the property.
• Buyer or seller circumstances, including job loss, illness, divorce, or plain cold feet.

Financing Trouble Leads the List

Lenders keep underwriting until the money funds, which surprises buyers who assume approval was final. Lenders commonly re-verify employment and re-pull credit shortly before closing, so anything that changes your financial picture can reopen the file.

Condo Buildings Add Their Own Risk

Larry describes a scenario familiar to anyone buying in an older building.

"It's in a weird condo building. We're going back and forth about condo docs with the lender. The underwriter still needs X, Y, and Z. We haven't gotten the full loan commitment because they don't have the right documents from the condo association."

The association controls that timeline, not you or your lender. Buyers in Boca Raton and West Palm Beach condo markets should request lender questionnaires and reserve documents during the week they sign.

Title Defects Tend to Surface Late

Title work runs quietly in the background until something turns up, and the discovery often lands close to the closing date.

• Contractor or tax liens recorded against the seller or the property.
• Judgments attached to a seller with a common name, requiring affidavits to clear.
• Probate gaps where an heir never signed a deed years earlier.
• Open or expired permits found during the municipal lien search.
• Survey findings showing an encroachment, easement conflict, or setback problem.
• Unreleased mortgages from a loan the seller paid off long ago.

Most of these clear with time and paperwork, though time is exactly what a two-week window lacks. Sellers in West Palm Beach can smooth this by ordering title early and resolving old liens before listing.

Third Parties Control Most Remaining Deadlines

Very little of what happens now sits in your hands, which explains why attentive agents spend these two weeks making phone calls. Each outstanding item belongs to someone outside the contract.

• The underwriter, who decides whether your file has cleared every condition.
• The appraiser, whose report can arrive late or short of contract price.
• The association, which controls applications, interviews, and lender questionnaires.
• The insurance carrier, which can decline a roof or pause binding during a storm.
• The title company, which clears liens, judgments, and payoff figures.
• The municipality, whose lien search can surface an open permit nobody expected.

Ask weekly for status on each one instead of waiting for bad news. Agents working Broward County deals know that a polite follow-up often moves a file further than a deadline ever will.

Risk Depends on the Deal, Not the Date

Two weeks out means very little on its own, and Larry draws the contrast sharply.

"If there's no loan and they have a million dollars hard in the account with the title company, maybe the risk profile of them disappearing off the face of the earth is much lower."

A financed purchase with open contingencies sits in an entirely different category, and Larry keeps returning to that distinction.

"It just depends on what type of deal is being done and where you're at in the transaction."

Ask which contingencies remain open, how much deposit sits at stake, and what still needs third-party approval. A Jupiter real estate agent can cover all of them in a single call. Those three answers describe your actual exposure better than any calendar count.

Reading the Signals Along the Way

Larry evaluates momentum through observable actions instead of assurances, and he walks through a typical progression.

"We just got through the inspection period. All signals look good. Buyer put their second deposit down. That's a great signal. Now they got 50 grand in escrow."

Behavior reveals commitment far more reliably than reassurance does.

"Now they have to get approval from the HOA. But guess what? They already submitted their HOA application. They've already communicated with the HOA. Great signal. They want to do this deal."

Watch for the same markers in your own transaction.

• Additional deposit funded on schedule instead of at the last moment.
• Inspection period closed without a renegotiation request.
• Association application submitted early and interview scheduled.
• Appraisal ordered and completed instead of still sitting pending.
• Loan commitment issued ahead of the contract deadline.
• Prompt responses from the other side's agent and lender.

Why Larry Compares It to Poker

His mental model for the whole process arrives near the end of the conversation.

"The more I do this, the more I realize that the process of selling a home is like playing poker. You're being presented with circumstances and you're playing the hand you're dealt."

Every deal deals different cards, so the right move changes with the situation.

"Everyone's situation is different and you just continue to evaluate it. And sometimes you're bluffing. It's a sales process."

His definition of finished follows the same logic.

"It's not done until you've won the pot. Until you have that money pulling it in. That's the only time it's actually done."

Buyer Habits That Sink a Loan

• New credit accounts, including store cards opened for furniture or appliances.
• Large purchases financed before closing, especially vehicles.
• Job changes, resignations, or a shift from salary to commission.
• Money moved between accounts, which restarts source documentation.
• Unexplained deposits that underwriting must trace and verify.
• Co-signing a loan for someone else, which adds debt to your ratios.
• Missed payments on any existing account during the contract period.

Change nothing about your finances until the loan actually funds. Buyers in Delray Beach lose approvals over furniture financing more often than anyone expects, and the pattern repeats across Palm Beach Gardens.

Hurricanes and Other Acts of God

Larry lists weather among the events he has watched disrupt closings.

"Hurricanes, we've had that happen. These are all weird acts of God or major stupid mistakes that can happen."

Florida contracts anticipate storm disruption directly. A force majeure provision typically extends performance deadlines up to seven days after the disruption ends. Either party may generally terminate if performance stays blocked beyond 30 days.

Insurance creates the practical bottleneck, since carriers stop binding new policies when a named storm threatens the state. Bind coverage as early as your inspection period allows.

When You Need More Time

A delay is not automatically a dead deal, and most parties would rather extend than start over. An extension addendum signed by both sides moves the closing date without disturbing anything else in the contract.

Extensions still carry real costs worth weighing before you ask.

• Rate lock extensions, which lenders typically charge for by the day.
• Per diem penalties, where a contract assigns a daily cost to the delaying party.
• Movers, storage, and temporary housing rebooked at short notice.
• Seller carrying costs, including another month of taxes, insurance, and association dues.

Request the extension early, since a seller with a purchase of their own may have less flexibility than you assume. Buyers in Delray Beach who flag a lender delay a week ahead usually get the days they need.

Does Closing End Your Liability?

A funded deal does not close the book, and Larry raises a scenario that tests a seller's judgment.

"You got this document that you just sent me about structural issues with this house, and you're telling me not to share this with the buyer."

His answer to that request left no room for negotiation.

"You're going to get sued. I'm going to get sued. We're all going to lose. I'm going to lose my license. It's not happening. We're sharing this with the buyer."

The arithmetic favors full disclosure every single time.

"Temporarily you might get that money in your account, and then you're going to get sued for way more."

Florida law supports that position squarely. Sellers must disclose known defects materially affecting value that a buyer cannot readily observe, and an as-is clause provides no shelter for concealment. Contract provisions and disclosure duties both survive the closing, as Larry puts it.

"The language in these contracts can survive."

This page covers general concepts and is not legal advice. A Florida attorney should review any specific dispute or disclosure question.

Small Mistakes Kill Deals, Not Big Ones

Almost nothing collapses from a single dramatic event. Deals unravel from a wire sent without a phone call, a store card opened for a sofa, or a questionnaire nobody chased. We work the opposite way, tracking each deadline and pressing the people who control your timeline. You hear which risks are genuinely live instead of the ones that merely sound scary. Reach out to The Mastropieri Group, Realtors® at (561) 544-7000 and give us your closing date and we will map exactly what stands between you and funded.

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