No bank does not mean no closing company. One of the reasons to use a closing company is so that there is a legally recognized agent involved in the transaction who is responsible for verifying the identities of all parties, ensuring that the title for the property is valid and that the title is legally transferred. If there was any question about whether or not I owned the house I just bought, I wouldn’t go to the bank, I’d go the closing company.
Regarding keys… your single experience and my single experience are equally valid.
That is why the realtor will often tell you to change the locks immediately - you have no idea how many sets of keys are out there. If the previous owner had an issue with you having keys to the previous locks, they could have had their realtor arrange for a locksmith to bring a different set of keys to closing - but that is their problem, not yours or your realtor’s. Its your house at the end of closing, that means the locks, and keys, are yours.
The neighbors made bond. It’s going to be a little tense in that neighborhood for awhile I bet.
It’s too late for Jean-Joseph Kalonji’s family to back out of the deal now. The house sale closed. They’ll have to live there and hope for the best. They were lucky that their son had a friend that’s a prominent Atlanta defense lawyer. http://www.ajc.com/news/father-son-who-held-1425654.html
