The processor's own work list — searches, payoffs, clearance, settlement figures, and the documents you don't close or fund without. 31 steps, grouped by when they happen.
Written for Texas specifically — the searches, notices and taxes on this list are the ones Texas files actually need.
Review the contract and open the file
Check vesting against the seller and the buyer names against the contract. Note marital status — Texas homestead rules mean a non-title spouse may still need to sign.
1 business day after the file being opened
Capture contacts for every party
1 business day after the file being opened
Confirm receipt of the earnest money and option fee
Two separate payments on a Texas contract, with different deadlines and different consequences. The option fee buys the termination period; the earnest money does not.
On the earnest money due date
Schedule closing on the calendar
2 business days after the file being opened
Order the title search and examination
2 business days after the file being opened
Order tax certificates
Every taxing entity on the property, not just the county — school district, city, hospital, college and any MUD or PID levy. An unpaid entity nobody ordered a certificate for becomes a lien after closing.
5 business days after the file being opened
Issue the commitment and flag unusual exceptions
Texas commitments and policies are promulgated forms, so the room to move is in the exceptions and the endorsements, not the wording.
No set deadline
Survey: existing with a T-47, or order a new one
An existing survey can be used if the seller signs the residential real property affidavit. The T-47 requires notarisation; the T-47.1 declaration, available since January 2025, does not. Confirm the buyer and the lender will both accept the existing survey before relying on it.
5 business days after the file being opened
Survey and affidavit received and reviewed
No set deadline
Check whether the property sits in a MUD, PID or both
These are separate regimes and neither notice substitutes for the other. A property inside both needs both, each with its own consequence for getting it wrong.
3 business days after the file being opened
MUD notice delivered and acknowledged
Required under the Water Code before the contract binds. If it was missed at contract, raise it immediately rather than at closing.
No set deadline
HOA resale certificate and governing documents ordered
Order early — a management company taking its statutory time is one of the most common reasons a Texas file misses its date.
5 business days after the file being opened
Seller's Disclosure Notice received
Property Code section 5.008. Not the title company's document, but its absence stalls the file, so it is worth tracking here.
No set deadline
Request payoffs
Every lien of record, plus any line of credit — a line needs freezing and written closing instructions as well as a figure, or the balance moves between the quote and the wire.
5 business days after the file being opened
Entity or estate seller: collect the authority documents
Only where the seller is not an individual. Formation documents, good standing, and a resolution or consent signed by whoever is actually authorised.
No set deadline
Work the Schedule C requirements
Texas puts what must be cleared before closing on Schedule C. Releases, liens, probate, missing heirs, judgment and tax liens — everything the commitment says must be resolved.
No set deadline
Send the outstanding-items list to both sides
21 days before closing
Lender closing instructions received and reviewed
7 days before closing
Insured closing letter issued to the lender
Check whether any endorsement the lender wants needs prior underwriter approval — that is the one that arrives late and stops a closing.
10 days before closing
Prepare the settlement statement
Prorate taxes on the certificates, not last year's bill — a district that has not set its rate yet is estimated, and worth saying so. Texas has no state real-estate transfer tax, so there is nothing of that kind to compute.
7 days before closing
Send settlement statements to both sides
3 days before closing
Deed and closing documents prepared
Check the vesting and the marital status again here. A homestead conveyance missing a spouse's signature is the correction that happens after recording.
3 days before closing
Confirm time and place of closing
3 days before closing
Final date-down search clear
1 business day before closing
PID notice delivered, and record the acknowledgement at closing
Property Code section 5.014. Without written notice before closing the buyer may rescind, and the title company is the one required to record the buyer's acknowledgement. This is squarely the processor's job, not the agent's.
No set deadline
Seller documents complete — do not close without these
Identification, signed settlement statement, executed deed, affidavits, the T-47 or T-47.1 if an existing survey is being used, and entity authority documents where the seller is not an individual.
1 business day before closing
Buyer documents complete — do not close without these
Identification, signed settlement statement, signed loan documents where financed, and the acknowledged district notices.
1 business day before closing
Do not fund or record until every condition is met
Funds actually collected and available, title marked up, all originals in hand, the deed matching the vesting, and lender funding authorisation where there is a lender. Confirm your own good-funds policy — what counts as collected differs by company and by instrument.
On closing
Send congratulations to all parties
1 business day after closing
Hand off to recording and mark the file closed
2 business days after closing
Recording confirmed and policies issued
Owner policy, and the loan policy where there is a lender. Premium remitted to the underwriter.
10 days after closing
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