Transaction coordinator checklist: every task from contract to close

• Download the template. Download the transaction coordinator checklist (CSV). It opens in Excel or Numbers, or in Google Sheets with File > Import, and has columns for phase, task, side, typical timing, owner and status.
• Print it or save it as a PDF. Use your browser’s Print command and choose Save as PDF to keep a printable copy of this page, checkboxes included. Prefer Word? Copy the sections you need into a document.
• Make it deal-specific. On day one, replace every typical timing with the actual date from your contract, then filter the Side column to Buyer or Listing.
• Assign owners. The agent owns decisions and anything that requires a license. The TC owns tracking, scheduling, document routing and follow-up.

For how these phases line up on the calendar, see the contract-to-close timeline.

Tip: Set each reminder two business days before the deadline, not on it. That gives you room for a missing signature or a party who’s out of the office.

Intake mistakes ripple through the whole file, so do this the day the contract is fully signed.

• Both: Confirm the contract is fully executed: every page, signature, initial and date, plus all addenda and counteroffers.
• Both: Record the effective date and calculate every deadline the way your contract counts days, including calendar versus business days, time-of-day cutoffs and weekend or holiday rules.
• Both: Build the contact sheet: clients, the other agent, the lender, title or escrow (or the closing attorney), and the HOA or management company.
• Both: Send the executed contract to title, escrow or the closing attorney, and confirm the file is open.
• Both: Email all parties an introduction with key dates, who owns which task and how you’ll send updates.
• Both: Open the file in your broker’s compliance system and upload the contract.
• Buyer: Send the contract to the lender, and confirm the loan type, the loan officer’s contact details and when the appraisal will be ordered.
• Buyer: Confirm the buyer knows the earnest money amount, deadline and delivery method.
• Listing: Confirm which seller disclosures have been delivered and which are still due.
• Listing: Update the listing status in the MLS within your MLS’s required timeframe, as the agent directs.
• Listing: Collect the seller’s mortgage and HOA details for title, so payoffs and HOA documents can be ordered early.
• Listing: Update showing instructions, whether the seller wants showings paused or wants to keep taking backup offers.

Earnest money deadlines are short and unforgiving. Under Texas’s standard resale contract, for example, the buyer must deliver the earnest money and option fee to the escrow agent within 3 days after the effective date, and the seller may terminate if the earnest money isn’t delivered on time (TREC 20-19). Other states’ forms set their own windows.

• Both: Confirm the earnest money amount, payee and deadline from the contract.
• Buyer: Send a wire-fraud warning before any money moves. The CFPB advises confirming wiring instructions with trusted contacts at a phone number you already have, and never following instructions that arrive by email.
• Both: Get the escrow or earnest money receipt and upload it to the file.
• Listing: Share the receipt with the seller.
• Both: Calendar any additional earnest money, option fee or due diligence fee the contract requires.

Disclosure requirements are mostly set by each state, with one big federal rule for older homes.

• Listing: Deliver the seller’s property disclosure your state requires, and get the buyer’s signed acknowledgment.
• Both: For homes built before 1978, confirm the file has the lead-based paint disclosure, the EPA pamphlet and the Lead Warning Statement. Federal rules give buyers a 10-day window to test for lead, which the parties can change in writing or the buyer can waive (EPA).
• Both: Collect any agency or brokerage relationship disclosures your state requires.
• Both: Check for state and local notices, such as special districts, flood zones or mandatory HOA membership.
• Buyer: Calendar any review period that starts when the buyer receives a disclosure.
• Both: Confirm every disclosure is signed and uploaded before the inspection deadline.

The inspection, option or due diligence period is often the buyer’s broadest right to walk away, so treat its deadline as the most important date in the first half of the deal.

• Buyer: Schedule the general inspection and any specialty inspections the buyer wants, as early in the period as possible.
• Listing: Arrange access with the seller: occupants, pets, alarm codes and utilities on.
• Buyer: Send inspection reports to the agent the day they arrive.
• Both: Confirm the exact cutoff. Some forms set a time of day: in Texas, notices to terminate during the option period must be given by 5:00 p.m. local time where the property is located (TREC 20-19).
• Both: Route the repair amendment or termination notice the agent prepared for signatures, well before the deadline.
• Both: Track the response and get the fully signed amendment into the file.
• Listing: Collect the repair invoices or receipts the amendment requires, and send them to the buyer’s side.
• Buyer: Schedule any re-inspection the contract allows before the final walkthrough.

Note: The agent negotiates repairs and advises the client. The TC tracks the deadline, routes the paperwork and confirms the work is done.

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• Buyer: Confirm the lender ordered the appraisal and when the appraiser will visit.
• Listing: Arrange access, and give the appraiser any information the listing agent wants to share, such as recent upgrades.
• Buyer: Track the appraisal copy. Lenders must give the buyer a copy promptly upon completion or three business days before closing, whichever is earlier, unless the buyer waives that timing (CFPB, Regulation B).
• Both: If the value comes in low, alert the agent the same day, with the appraisal contingency deadline if the contract has one.
• Both: File any appraisal-related amendment once it’s signed.

Financing is mostly buyer-side work, but a listing-side TC should check status at every milestone too.

• Buyer: Confirm the buyer received the Loan Estimate. Lenders must deliver it within three business days after receiving the loan application (CFPB, Regulation Z).
• Buyer: Calendar the financing or loan approval deadline from the contract.
• Buyer: Get a weekly status from the lender: open conditions, appraisal, title and insurance received.
• Buyer: Make sure the buyer’s homeowners insurance binder reaches the lender.
• Buyer: Confirm clear to close, and the date the Closing Disclosure went out.
• Listing: Ask the buyer’s agent for status at loan approval, appraisal and clear to close.

• Both: Confirm the title search is ordered and when the commitment or preliminary report will arrive. Texas’s resale contract, for example, gives the seller 20 days after the title company receives the contract to furnish the title commitment (TREC 20-19).
• Buyer: Send the title commitment and exception documents to the buyer and agent, and calendar the objection deadline.
• Listing: Give title what it needs on the seller’s side: payoff lenders, any liens or judgments, and signer details.
• Both: Order HOA or condo resale documents early, and calendar any review period your state or contract gives the buyer.
• Both: Confirm the survey requirement, whether that’s an existing survey with an affidavit or a new survey, per the contract and the lender.
• Listing: Confirm the seller’s FIRPTA status with the closing agent. If the seller is a foreign person, the buyer is usually the withholding agent, and the general rate is 15% of the amount realized (IRS).
• Both: Confirm who orders the home warranty, if the contract includes one.

• Buyer: Schedule the walkthrough close to closing, after repairs are done and, if possession transfers at closing, after the seller has moved out.
• Listing: Confirm with the seller that agreed repairs are finished, receipts are in the file, utilities stay on and included items stay with the house.
• Both: Confirm possession terms: at closing and funding, or under a lease if one party needs more time.
• Buyer: Flag any problem to the agent before signing, while there’s still time to resolve it.

Start this phase about a week before closing. Most of it is confirmation work that can’t wait until the day of.

• Buyer: Confirm the buyer received the Closing Disclosure at least three business days before closing (CFPB, Regulation Z). If the APR becomes inaccurate, the loan product changes or a prepayment penalty is added, a corrected disclosure and a new three-business-day wait are required.
• Both: Review the settlement statement against the contract: price, credits, prorations, commissions and fees. Send any discrepancy to the agent.
• Both: Confirm signing times, the location or mobile notary, IDs and every person who must sign.
• Buyer: Repeat the wire-fraud warning. Closing funds go only to instructions verified by phone with the closing agent.
• Listing: Confirm the seller’s proceeds instructions with the closing agent the same way.
• Both: Send commission instructions or the disbursement authorization through your broker’s process.
• Both: Confirm funding and recording, then notify the agent and clients.
• Listing: Hand over keys, openers and codes per the contract, remove the lockbox and update the MLS.

• Both: Upload the final signed settlement statement and closing documents to the compliance file.
• Both: Run your broker’s checklist: every amendment, notice, receipt and disclosure signed and present.
• Both: Answer compliance requests quickly. Some brokerages hold commission until the file is approved.
• Both: Confirm the commission was received and matches the settlement statement.
• Listing: Enter the sold price and date in the MLS within the required timeframe.
• Both: Send clients a closing package with their final documents.
• Both: Archive the file for as long as your state and broker require. For pre-1978 homes, the EPA requires sellers and agents to keep signed lead-based paint disclosures for three years after the sale.
• Both: Set follow-up reminders for the agent, such as the closing anniversary.

Both sides share the deadline calendar, but the daily work differs. A buyer’s agent’s TC spends more time with the lender; a listing agent’s TC spends more time with the seller and title.

The CSV template uses the same Both, Buyer and Listing labels, so you can filter it to either view.

The intro email is the first thing every party sees from you, and it sets expectations for the whole file. Copy this, fill in the brackets and send it on day one.

Subject: [Property address] is under contract: key dates and contacts

Hi everyone,

I'm [name], transaction coordinator for [agent name] on [property address].
The effective date is [date]. Here are the dates we're working toward:

- Earnest money due: [date]
- Inspection / option / due diligence period ends: [date and time]
- Appraisal and financing deadlines: [dates]
- Closing: [date]

Please send documents and updates to [email]. I'll send a status update at
each milestone. Wiring instructions will only come from [closing agent].
Always call them at a number you already have before sending any money.

Thank you,
[name] | [phone]

The phases above apply everywhere; the details don’t. Your state’s standard contract decides how days are counted, which disclosures are required and what happens when a deadline is missed. Local practice decides whether a title company, an escrow company or an attorney handles the closing. Add your state’s items to the template before you use it:

• Texas: TREC-promulgated forms, the option period and option fee, and survey affidavits. See the Texas transaction coordinator guide.
• California: the standard purchase agreement’s contingency deadlines and the state’s disclosure requirements. See the California transaction coordinator guide.
• Florida: the contract forms Florida agents commonly use, inspection periods and the state’s disclosures. See the Florida transaction coordinator guide.
• Everywhere else: find your state’s transaction coordinator guide.