Buying a House in Kansas City
A closing statement is an accounting, in writing, prepared
at the close of escrow which sets forth the charges and credits of your
account. The items shown on the statement will reflect the purchase price of your Kansas City real estate,
the funds deposited or credited to your account, payoffs on existing encumbrances
and/or liens, the costs for all services and a determination of the funds
you are entitled to at the close of the escrow. When you receive your closing
papers, review the closing statement; it is extremely logical and reflects
the financial aspects of your transaction. If anything does not make sense
to you, you should ask your escrow officer or closing attorney for an explanation.
When going through your closing papers, examine all of them;
there may even be a refund check hiding in there. Cash the check quickly,
please. Be sure to have the check properly endorsed. All payees must endorse
the check. This will eliminate the check being returned unpaid due to irregular
or missing endorsements.
Your closing statement and all other escrow papers should
be kept virtually forever for income tax purposes.
Your accountant will need the information about the sale or
purchase of the property. The IRS and other agencies may require you to prove
your costs and/or profit on the sale of any property. The closing statement
will assist in this task.
Do not rely on your escrow holder retaining the escrow file
so you can “always call and get copies of the closing statement.” Most
escrow holders will destroy the files after the statutory retention
period, usually five years. Maintaining and storing the closed escrow files
is a costly endeavor to the escrow holder. Therefore, a nominal fee may
be charged by your escrow holder for the retrieval of a file from storage,
photocopying the requested documents, and returning the file to storage.
