Sunday Spotlight.
The calendar kills more deals than the rate does.
Nearly one in seven deals are falling through. Most die on a date nobody circled.
It's rarely the financing that fails. It's the deadline.
A deal blows up, and the story everyone tells is about the money. The rate moved, the appraisal came in short, underwriting got cold feet. But pull the timeline on most dead deals and you'll find the real culprit: a date slipped. The financing contingency expired before the approval was firm. The appraisal got ordered late and came back after the deadline. Somebody sat on a document request for four days during the one week that mattered.
This isn't a small problem right now. Redfin data has purchase agreements falling through at close to one in seven, the fastest pace in almost a decade. That's not a market of buyers who can't qualify. It's a market where the timelines are tight and the clock is unforgiving.
Back when I was selling, I learned to read a purchase contract as what it really is: a countdown clock with money attached. Most people treat those dates like suggestions. The ones who treat them like deadlines are the ones still standing at the closing table.
agreements falling through
a purchase loan
contract, Albany
selling over asking
Nearly 14% of U.S. purchase agreements fell through in early 2026 by some counts, a near-decade high. A lot of that is preventable, and a lot of it is timing: your financing and appraisal contingencies usually run shorter than the days it takes to close, so the two calendars have to line up on purpose, not by luck. Fast local timelines feel great until a single slipped date has no slack left to absorb it.
Put the three dates on your calendar, not just the buyer's.
Every deal has three that matter: the day the appraisal is ordered, the day the financing contingency expires, and the target clear-to-close. Write them down the day you go under contract and set your own reminders. Don't assume the lender or the buyer is watching the clock. Watch it yourself, and you'll catch the slip while there's still time to fix it.
Pull every active contract you've got and write the financing-contingency date and the closing date at the top of each one.
A firm timeline protects you more than a backup offer.
When you accept an offer, know exactly when the buyer's contingencies lift and hold them to it. A buyer who's moving on schedule is a buyer who's closing. If a date starts slipping with no good reason, that's your early warning, not a surprise at the finish line.
A buyer moving on schedule is a buyer who's closing. A slipping date is your early warning.
The dates in your contract are real, not paperwork.
When your lender asks for a document, send it the same day. A pay stub that sits in your inbox for a week is how a comfortable timeline turns into a blown deadline. The fastest closings aren't luck. They're buyers who treat every request like it's on a clock, because it is.
The fastest closings aren't luck. They're buyers who treat every request like it's on a clock.
Eighteen hours of sleep a day, so believe me, I know the value of a routine. Dad's phone buzzed all week with people worried about a date on some contract. From down here under the desk, the pattern is easy to see. The humans who mark the important days and check them off aren't the ones panicking. They're the ones who still get the treat at the end, on time. Do the boring stuff on time. It works. I'd bark it louder, but it's nearly dinner.
Deals that close on schedule aren't an accident. These are the people who lived it, in their own words, from Google, Zillow, Facebook and Experience.com.
Got a deal where the clock is getting tight?
If any buyer is inside ten days of a contingency and the appraisal isn't back yet, call the lender today. That one pass through your pipeline will catch the deal that was about to slip while everyone assumed it was fine. If it's my file, or you'd like it to be, call me — getting ahead of the dates so a good deal doesn't die on a technicality is a big part of what I do.
Sr. Loan Consultant, New American Funding · NMLS #481563 · Albany · NMLS #6606 · Equal Housing Lender.
For real estate and lending professionals; educational only. Not a commitment to lend or a rate lock. Contingency terms and timelines are set by the purchase contract and vary by transaction. Fallout figure per Redfin, early 2026; closing timeline reflects general industry averages. Local market figures reflect third-party aggregated Albany data.