A Parent’s Guide for Summer Closing & School District Enrollment

If you’re like most parents moving into the Charlotte region, one of your top priorities for closing on your new home is ensuring you do so with plenty of time to enroll your child into their new school district. Coordinating closing with school enrollment can be a challenge without the proper planning or guidance. At Matheson Law Firm, P.A., our real estate attorneys have years of experience assisting families through the closing process and ensuring they get their children enrolled in school on time. To help you better understand what to expect, our real estate lawyers put together a step-by-step guide for the closing and enrollment process here in Charlotte.

Your Step-by-Step Guide to Closing & Enrollment

There is a clear timeline of events that must take place to close and enroll your child in their new school district: making an offer, getting your offer accepted, and submitting your enrollment packet.

Make an Offer

Once you’ve identified the home you’d like to live in, you’ll work with your real estate attorney to submit an offer on the house. Submitting an offer is a fairly quick process, requiring you to simply name the price you feel comfortable paying for the property. After your offer is submitted to the seller’s real estate agent, they will review it with the seller. The length of this process can vary depending on how motivated the seller is to review the offer. In most cases, you should hear back about whether or not the offer has been accepted within 24 to 48 hours.

Offer is Accepted

Once the offer has been accepted, it’s time for your real estate attorney to perform a title search on the property to ensure it’s clear of any possible third-party interests once ownership has been transferred to your name. Depending on the specifics of your property, sealing the deal on your offer can take a great deal of time. The following are just a few examples of scenarios that can complicate the process and cause it to drag on for longer than necessary:

• Blemished title: If your property’s title isn’t clear, your real estate attorney will need to perform what’s called a quiet title action. This will prevent any third parties present on the title from claiming ownership of the property later on. Quiet title actions can take months to officially complete depending on how many parties appear on the title and how quickly court hearings can occur.
• Short sale: A short sale occurs when the seller owes more on the property than its worth in the current market. This is a great deal for the purchaser, but it can take a while to get the seller’s lender to sign off on the short sale. In some cases, the lender may not approve the sale depending on how significant the loss is on their end. Short sales can take between three and six months to complete, and in some cases, can take up to a full year — especially if the seller’s lender is out of state.
• Home inspection: Many offers are submitted on the contingency of home inspection. This means that you will need to schedule a home inspection for the offer to stand. The date by which you must schedule your home inspection will be outlined in your offer contract (usually around two weeks from the date the offer was made). If the inspection renders unsatisfactory results, you’ll either need to renegotiate your offer or head back to square one and start looking for alternate properties.

Submit Enrollment Packet

You should only enroll your child in their new school district after you’ve selected your desired property and had your offer officially accepted. After the offer has been accepted and you’ve been provided with the keys, move-in date, and deed to your new home, you will need to fill out the enrollment packet for your school district. Each child will need to have their own enrollment packet completed and returned to their school district before the enrollment deadline specified by the school.

Important Dates for School Enrollment in Charlotte

If you’re planning a move to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district region before the 2022-2023 academic year, you’ll need to keep in mind the following enrollment deadlines:

• Period 1: October 4 – November 19, 2021
• Period 2: November 22, 2021 – January 14, 2022
• Extended Enrollment: January 18 – June 3, 2022

In North Carolina, school enrollment deadlines are set at the local level. If you are not moving to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district area, check with your local district to see what enrollment deadlines there are for your neighborhood.

Since it typically takes between 30 and 45 days to officially close on your property (without extenuating circumstances), we recommend submitting an offer at least three to six months from the enrollment deadline indicated by your child’s future school district to ensure they can be enrolled by the following school year.

Matheson Law Firm is Here to Help!

Still not sure how to coordinate school enrollment with your real estate closing? Matheson Law Firm is here to help. Our team has years of experience helping families find their dream homes in the Charlotte metro area. We can help you prepare all closing documents and will even assist you in the school enrollment process by providing you with the resources necessary to ensure timely enrollment. Contact our team to schedule a consultation with our real estate attorneys today!