---
title: "Your House Closing Checklist: What to Confirm Before the Table Is Set"
description: "A house closing checklist for Florida buyers and sellers: what to confirm, bring, and verify before the table is set so the deed records and the keys change hands."
published: "2026-06-29"
canonical: "https://blog.saltharborrealestate.com/blog/house-closing-checklist"
author: "Everitt Gill"
---

A house closing checklist is the short, ordered set of things you verify and carry to the table so the deed can record and the keys can change hands without a delay: a clean final walk-through, a Closing Disclosure you have read and reconciled, cleared funds (wired or a cashier's check), homeowner's and flood insurance already bound, a valid photo ID, and written confirmation that every loan and title condition has been cleared. In Florida the closing is a table closing run by a title company or a real estate attorney, so the whole file has to be finished before anyone sits down.

Most of the holdups I see in Nassau County have little to do with the signing itself. They show up a week earlier, when an insurance binder will not issue because a tropical system is sitting in the Atlantic, or when a 1920s house downtown turns out to have an open permit for a deck somebody built in 2014. The checklist exists so those surprises land early, with room to fix them before the morning you are supposed to get your keys.

## What do you do before closing day?

In the two weeks before closing you confirm four things and then reconcile the money: your financing is locked, your insurance is bound, your title is clear, and the property has passed its final walk-through. Each of those is a separate task with its own way of going sideways, so handle them in order and chase every loose end the same day it appears.

- Lock the loan and feed underwriting fast. Your rate lock has an expiration, and so does your patience if a document request sits in your inbox for three days. Underwriters often ask for one more pay stub or a letter explaining a deposit at the last minute. Answer the same day and the file stays on schedule.
- Bind insurance before you need it. On Amelia Island this is the item that quietly controls your closing date. A coastal home usually needs a wind mitigation report and, for anything built before the 2000s, a four-point inspection before a carrier will write it. If a named storm enters the forecast cone, insurers stop issuing new binders until it passes, and a closing with no bound policy cannot fund.
- Review the title commitment. The title company runs a search and lists exceptions: an old mortgage that was paid but never released, a contractor's lien, an easement along the marsh. A municipal lien search through the City of Fernandina Beach can also surface an unpaid utility balance or a code item. These get cleared before closing, so read the commitment when it arrives and ask about anything you do not recognize.
- Walk the house one last time. Twenty-four hours before closing, walk every room with the contract in hand. Confirm the repairs the seller agreed to are done, run the air conditioning (in July the difference between a working system and a dead one is obvious within a minute), test the appliances, and make sure nothing that conveyed has walked out the door.
- Reconcile the closing figures. A few days out you receive your Closing Disclosure, the federal form that lays out your final numbers. Compare it against your loan estimate and your contract. The line-by-line read of that form, and the three-day rule that governs it, is its own subject, so I will point you to the Closing Disclosure breakdown rather than repeat it here.
- Arrange your funds the safe way. Confirm the exact amount and the wiring instructions by calling the title company at a number you looked up yourself, never a number pulled from an email. Wire fraud aimed at closings is common, and the money is almost impossible to recover. For smaller amounts a cashier's check is fine; ask the closer which they prefer.

## What should you bring to the closing table?

Bring a valid government photo ID, a second form of ID if the title company asks, your cashier's check or wire confirmation, and any documents the closer flagged: your insurance binder, a paid receipt for the first year's premium, and a power of attorney if someone is signing for you. A buyer usually wires the down payment and closing costs ahead of time. A seller brings ID, payoff information for any existing mortgage, and every key, garage remote, gate fob, and mailbox key.

| Bring this | Buyer | Seller |
|---|---|---|
| Government photo ID | Yes | Yes |
| Cashier's check or wire confirmation | Yes | No |
| Homeowner's and flood insurance binder plus paid receipt | Yes | No |
| Existing mortgage payoff information | No | Yes |
| Keys, remotes, gate fobs, mailbox keys | No | Yes |
| Power of attorney (if signing remotely) | If applicable | If applicable |

## What does a Florida closing actually look like?

A Florida closing is a table closing handled by a title company or a real estate attorney. You sit down, the closer walks you through the deed, the note and mortgage (for a buyer with a loan), and the settlement statement, and you sign. Florida is a wet-funding state, which means the money has to be disbursed at closing rather than days later, so the file is fully vetted before you arrive. The signing itself is usually short.

This is also where your owner's title insurance policy gets set, protecting you if a claim against the title surfaces years later. On a waterfront or marsh-front lot, the closer may also want a current survey showing the boundary and any seawall or dock. Florida also allows remote online notarization, so an out-of-state seller can sign by video rather than fly back to the island for an hour at the table. Sometimes the buyer and seller close separately, an hour apart, and never meet. When we hand a buyer off to closing at Salt Harbor Real Estate, the goal is that nothing on this page is a surprise, because we walked it with them two weeks earlier.

## How is closing on the coast different here?

Closing on Amelia Island or anywhere in Nassau County adds a few items an inland checklist skips, almost all tied to water, weather, and old building stock. Flood insurance is the big one: much of the island sits in a FEMA flood zone, and a lender will not fund without a bound flood policy on top of homeowner's coverage. Hurricane season, which runs June 1 through November 30, can freeze new insurance binders for days when a storm is named.

- Flood zone and elevation. Pull the flood determination early. A home in an AE or VE zone needs flood insurance, and the premium can swing widely based on the elevation certificate, so you want that number in hand before you are committed.
- Open permits and additions. Decks, docks, seawalls, and enclosed porches are everywhere out here, and plenty were built on a handshake. An open or expired permit can stall a closing until it is resolved, so ask for the permit history and the certificate of occupancy on any addition.
- CDD fees in the newer developments. Several Yulee communities off State Road 200 carry Community Development District assessments that show up on the tax bill. Confirm the annual amount on your settlement figures so it is not a January surprise.
- Property tax proration. Florida bills property taxes in arrears, so at closing the year's taxes are split between seller and buyer based on the closing date. You will see that proration as a credit or a charge on your statement.

## What happens after you sign?

After you sign, the title company sends the deed to the Nassau County Clerk of Court in Fernandina Beach to be recorded, the lender releases funds, and only then does the sale legally close. Keys and possession follow recording and disbursement, not the signature, and a seller's money moves on its own schedule. Both have their own timing, so I will point you to the keys-at-closing and seller-proceeds explainers for the hour-by-hour.

One thing to put on the calendar: if the house is your primary residence, file for your Florida homestead exemption with the Nassau County Property Appraiser by March 1 of the year after you buy. It lowers your taxable value and caps how fast your assessment can climb under Save Our Homes. Miss the deadline and you wait a full year for the benefit. Before move-in, transfer utilities into your name: water and sewer through the City of Fernandina Beach, electric and gas through Florida Public Utilities, so the lights are on when you arrive.

Keep your closing package somewhere you will find it again. The deed, the title policy, and the final settlement statement are what you will need when you refinance, sell, or file that homestead paperwork. A house closing often comes down to a short signing and a handshake, and it stays that simple when the list behind it was done early.