General Homebuying Question

This may sound like a dumb question but..........If I wanted to purchase a house or condo/townhouse, and wanted to close, say next July 1 (for arguements sake), would I have to pay downpayment and closing costs on July 1st? In other words, say I wanted to purchase a particular property by a certain date, would I have to pay up dues on that date...or do you think it would take some time, i.e, lawyer talks, seller talks delaying sale???
The reason for my question is I would like to use the money I receive from our wedding to help purchase a townhouse/condo. Our wedding is August 19, 2005. But we want to start looking and hopefully find something we like before that so we can move in after the wedding. Is it possible to have the home buying process drag on to the point where we can use the wedding money to help pay for the property??

I hope I am making sense!!!????

The day that you close is the day that your down payment and closing costs payments are due. Now at contract signing you have to give your lawyer $ to put in escrow. That $ is to protect the seller that should you back out they would get the $ at escrow. That amount is determined by you. The seller's lawyer will have an opinion as to what the amount.

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