The Transaction Coordinator Checklist: Every Step From Contract to Close

It’s 4:45 on a Friday and a new contract just landed. Escrow and title are already gone for the weekend. You’ve got the file open, and something’s bugging you: you’re forgetting a step, you just can’t say which one. Every TC has had that Friday. This transaction coordinator checklist puts every step on paper so that you can check the file instead of your memory.

It covers every step from executed contract to post-closing, in the order you’ll actually work them. Use it to open a file, audit one, or hand it to the new hire who starts Monday. If you’re still figuring out the role itself, start with what a transaction coordinator does and come back. If you’d rather work from a file, the free PDF and Google Sheet are near the end.

Two things before you scroll. Timelines vary by state and by contract, so the items are phrased around your contract’s deadlines rather than day counts. And some items only apply to one side of the deal. Those are tagged (buyer) or (seller)—everything else, both sides.

How to use this transaction coordinator checklist

Run it per file, not per week. Each new contract gets a fresh copy, and you date every item as you check it off. It feels fussy until a broker asks, “When did the buyer get the disclosure?” Then those dates are your audit trail.

Then make it yours. Swap in your state’s names for disclosures and contingencies. Cut whatever your contracts never use. If the list talks the way your contracts do, you’ll keep opening it long after file three.

Where should it live? Paper in the folder works for your first few files. After that, set it up as a task template in transaction management software built for TCs. Every new file then starts with the full list, and the software does the date math from the contract.

On teams, the failure we see most is two people each sure the other handled it. Split the tasks however you like (lender check-ins to one person, MLS updates to another), but give each file one checklist owner. When someone asks, “Where are we?” that’s who answers.

Phase 1: Contract to acceptance

Get these 12 done in the first 24 hours, and the next six weeks are mostly follow-through. Skip one,e and you’ll be chasing it later.

1. Received the executed contract, with every page and addendum. Make sure it’s the final version and not an earlier counter that got replaced.
2. Every signature and initial verified, every page. Check counters and addenda too, since that’s where initials usually go missing.
3. Effective date confirmed and written down. Everything else hangs off this one date.
4. Escrow or title opened, contract delivered, and your name and number on the file so they call you, not your agent.
5. Send earnest money instructions to the buyer, including the deadline and how to deliver it. (buyer)
6. Introduction emails out to everyone: both agents, both clients, lender, title. Who you are, what you do, how to reach you.
7. Timeline built, with every contract deadline calculated from the effective date and added to a calendar.
8. Calendar shared with your agent, and with clients if your agent wants them to see it.
9. MLS status updated to pending or under contract, per your board’s rules. (seller)
10. File created in your system with the document checklist for this deal type.
11. Lender contact confirmed, and pre-approval or proof of funds in the file. (buyer)
12. Compliance submission made to your brokerage within the required window, often 24 to 48 hours.

Phase 2: Contingency period

This is the crowded stretch. Inspection, appraisal, financing, HOA review, and disclosures can all come due in the same two or three weeks, and any one of them can hurt your client if it slips by. None of these items is hard on its own. Fifteen files’ worth at once is another story.

1. Inspection scheduled inside the inspection period, with access confirmed with the listing side. (buyer)
2. Inspection response deadline on the calendar with a reminder two business days out. Not the morning of.
3. Inspection report received and forwarded to your agent. Your agent interprets it.
4. Repair request or amendment drafted by your agent, signed by everyone, and distributed.
5. Repair negotiations tracked: what was asked, what was agreed, by when.
6. Seller’s disclosures delivered to the buyer, and signed receipts collected. Without a signed receipt, you can’t prove the buyer got them. (seller)
7. Deliver and have the lead-based paint disclosure signed for any home built before 1978.
8. HOA documents ordered on day one of the period—HOAs are slow—and delivered to the buyer with the review deadline noted. (buyer)
9. Confirm earnest money receipt in writing from title or escrow.
10. The lender orders the appraisal and schedules property access. (buyer)
11. Appraisal result received and compared to the contract price. A shortfall goes to your agent within the hour.
12. Financing contingency deadline tracked, with a lender status check before it arrives.
13. Contingency removals or waivers signed and filed as each period closes.
14. Extensions, if you need them, signed by all parties before the original deadline. Once that deadline passes, the contingency it protected may already be gone.
15. Compliance file updated with every newly signed document.

Phase 3: Financing and title

Then your inbox goes silent. The lender’s working through conditions, title’s pulling the commitment, and nobody thinks to update you. Don’t read silence as progress. Keep asking.

1. Loan application confirmed complete with the lender. (buyer)
2. Lender check-in cadence set, weekly at minimum, and every answer logged in the file.
3. Track lender conditions, and prompt the buyer for anything still outstanding. (buyer)
4. Title commitment received and read in full for liens, name discrepancies, and easements. Anything substantive goes to your agent.
5. Title objections, if any, delivered before the contract’s objection deadline.
6. Order the survey if required, receive it, and check for encroachments.
7. Obtain the homeowners insurance binder and send it to the lender. (buyer)
8. Home warranty ordered if the contract calls for one, with the invoice to title.
9. Payoff request and HOA transfer or estoppel letter confirmed with title. (seller)
10. Clear-to-close received from the lender, and the closing date reconfirmed with every party.

Phase 4: Pre-closing

A typo in week two costs you an email. The same typo in closing week can push the closing. So most of this closing checklist double-checks things you set up weeks ago.

1. Closing date, time, and location confirmed with title, both agents, and both clients.
2. Send a wire fraud warning to the buyer in writing before title sends wire instructions. Tell them to treat any emailed change to wire instructions as fraud, and to call title at a number they already have before sending anything. (buyer)
3. Final walkthrough scheduled, usually 24 to 48 hours before closing, with repairs checked against the amendment. (buyer)
4. Utilities transfer confirmed: buyer set up for closing day, seller shutoff for the day after.
5. Closing disclosure received by the buyer at least three business days before closing, on financed purchases. (buyer)
6. Closing disclosure or settlement statement reviewed line by line against the contract: price, credits, prorations, commission, fees.
7. Request corrections from title in writing, then receive and recheck the revised statement.
8. Signing appointments confirmed, including a mobile notary or remote signing if someone’s out of town.
9. Power of attorney arranged and approved by title and lender if anyone can’t attend.
10. Collect keys, garage remotes, codes, and manuals from the seller, or arrange a handoff. (seller)
11. Commission disbursement authorization prepared and sent to title.
12. Final pre-closing email to everyone with the schedule, the address, and what to bring. This is the email that prevents the 8 a.m. “where do I go?” call.

Phase 5: Closing and post-closing

Don’t close the file at funding. Items 6 through 8 keep it audit-proof, and items 9 and 10 are how this closing becomes your agent’s next referral.

1. Funding confirmed with title and communicated to all parties.
2. Recording confirmed and communicated. Depending on your market, keys are released at funding or at recording, not at signing—and clients don’t know that until you tell them.
3. Commission receipt confirmed with the brokerage.
4. MLS status updated to closed or sold, with the final price and date. (seller)
5. Final signed closing documents collected from title and added to the file.
6. File audited against this checklist: every required document present, signed, dated, and the right version.
7. Brokerage compliance file submitted and accepted.
8. File archived in your system with a naming convention you’ll still understand in three years.
9. Closing packet sent to the client with the key documents and a thank-you from your agent.
10. Send a review request and schedule follow-up touches at one week, 30 days, and the first anniversary.

The mistakes this checklist prevents

We’ve talked to a lot of TCs about the deal that went sideways, and the same six causes keep coming up.

The deadline nobody noticed. The buyer’s inspection objection period expires on a Friday. Nobody sends the response until Monday. Depending on the contract, the buyer may have just lost the right to negotiate repairs, or to walk. Phase 2, items 2 and 14.

The disclosure that went out but never came back. The seller’s disclosure went out by email. The buyer read it. Nobody got a signed receipt. Six months later, the basement’s wet, and nobody can prove the buyer was told—phase 2, item 6.

The wire that went to the wrong place. A spoofed email that looks like it came from title sends the buyer new wire instructions two days before closing. The down payment is gone by lunch. A written warning (Phase 4, item 2) costs you one email, which makes it the cheapest protection on this list.

The closing disclosure error caught at the table. A seller credit is missing, the prorations are wrong, or someone slipped a decimal on the commission. Now title has to issue a corrected disclosure before anyone signs. If the fix touches the APR or loan terms, the buyer’s three-business-day clock starts over—phase 4, items 6 and 7.

The earnest money everyone assumed was there. The buyer swears they wired it. Title has no record of it. Nobody notices until there’s a dispute, and then the seller learns the contract was never fully performed.—phase2, item 9.

The compliance file that fails the audit. The deal closed fine. Then the brokerage review finds a missing addendum or an unsigned page. Phase 5, item 6, runs that same audit before the brokerage does.

Download the checklist

Two formats, and neither asks for your email. Print the PDF and drop it in the file folder. Or use the Google Sheet as your template (it exports to Excel if that’s what you use) and make a copy per file. Fill in the due-date and completed-date columns as you go, and you’ve got your audit trail.

Download the PDF Copy the Google Sheet

FAQ

What should a transaction coordinator checklist include?

At minimum: each contract deadline, each document that needs a signature or receipt, and each person you owe an update. Group them by phase (contract to acceptance, contingencies, financing and title, pre-closing, closing and post-closing). Tag items that apply to only one side, and use one list for both buyer and listing files.

How many items should a transaction coordinator checklist have?

Ours has 59 items across five phases, which handles most residential files. Past 80 or so, you’re likely listing sub-steps. Fold those into the parent task.

Does a transaction coordinator checklist differ by state?

Yes, in the details. Every state moves through the same five phases, but states don’t agree on what to call each contingency, how to count deadline days, which disclosures are mandatory, or whether an attorney or title company runs the closing. Keep the structure and swap in your state’s forms and terms.

Is the checklist different for the buyer side and the seller side?

Somewhat. About a quarter of the items only apply to one side. Buyer-side, you’re handling inspection, appraisal, financing, and the wire warning. Listing-side, it’s disclosures, MLS updates, payoff, and keys. The (buyer) and (seller) tags let one list cover both, which helps if you work dual-sided files. Pre-listing work like the listing agreement and MLS input isn’t covered, since the list starts at the executed contract.

Manage this checklist in AFrame

When the next contract lands at 4:45 on a Friday, the file should already tell you what can wait until Monday. After you’ve run this list by hand on a few files, put it in AFrame as an action plan. Every new transaction inherits all 59 items, deadlines are calculated from the contract dates, and each task has an owner and a reminder. See pricing and start a free 30-day trial.