Plan to wire money for closing one to two business days before your scheduled closing date, once your lender has issued a “clear to close,” you’ve reviewed your final Closing Disclosure, and you’ve verified the wire instructions by phone with the title company. Federal rules require you to receive the Closing Disclosure at least three business days before the loan closes, so the earliest realistic moment to initiate the wire is after you have that final cash-to-close figure in hand.1Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure FAQs Send too early and your money sits in a trust account with no interest and a slow path back if the deal falls apart. Send too late and you can miss closing entirely.
Wait for the Final Closing Disclosure
You cannot wire the right amount until you know the right amount, and the right amount lives on your Closing Disclosure. Your lender must deliver that document to you at least three business days before the loan closes.1Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure FAQs Those three days give you time to compare the final figures against the Loan Estimate you received when you applied and to raise questions before any money moves.
The disclosure lays out your loan terms, monthly payment, all closing costs, and the cash-to-close figure you’ll be wiring.2eCFR. 12 CFR 1026.38 – Content of Disclosures for Certain Mortgage Transactions If something significant changes after you receive it, such as an inaccurate interest rate or a newly added prepayment penalty, the lender must issue a corrected disclosure and the three-day clock restarts. Minor corrections don’t trigger a new waiting period, but substantive ones do. When the clock restarts, your closing date shifts, and your wire timing shifts with it. That’s the practical reason to hold off on initiating the wire until the final version is locked in.
The One-to-Two-Business-Day Window
The standard practice is to wire closing funds one to two business days before your closing appointment. Some escrow companies want funds 24 hours ahead. Others require 48. The title company or escrow agent handling your file will tell you their specific deadline, and their deadline is the one that governs.
The morning-of-closing wire is where buyers get burned. Any hiccup with your bank, the wire system, or the receiving side’s reconciliation and you don’t close that day. The safer target is the business day before closing, early in the morning, with the final cash-to-close figure confirmed and wire instructions verified.
Sending too early has its own costs. The funds sit in the escrow company’s trust account earning you nothing, and if the deal collapses, unwinding a wire is slower than you’d want. The window exists for a reason: late enough that the number is final, early enough that a delay doesn’t kill the closing.
Bank Cutoff Times, Fedwire Hours, and Holidays
Your wire runs through the Federal Reserve’s Fedwire Funds Service. Once processed, a Fedwire transfer is immediate, final, and irrevocable.3Federal Reserve Board. Fedwire Funds Services The Fedwire system itself accepts customer transfers until 7:00 PM Eastern Time on business days, but your bank sets an earlier internal cutoff, often between 2:00 PM and 4:00 PM.4Federal Reserve Financial Services. Wholesale Services Operating Hours Miss your bank’s cutoff and the wire waits until the next business day.
Fedwire does not operate on weekends or Federal Reserve holidays. In 2026, that includes New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day (January 19), Presidents’ Day (February 16), Memorial Day (May 25), Juneteenth (June 19), Independence Day (observed July 3, since July 4 falls on a Saturday), Labor Day (September 7), Columbus Day (October 12), Veterans Day (November 11), Thanksgiving (November 26), and Christmas (December 25). A Tuesday closing after a Monday holiday means wiring by Friday afternoon at the latest. There’s no way to push a wire through a closed system, so build the calendar backward from your closing date and count only business days.
Two other bank-side issues catch buyers off guard. Many banks impose daily dollar limits on wires initiated online, and closing wires often exceed those limits, forcing a branch visit. Some banks also require 24 hours’ notice for high-value outgoing transfers. Call your bank a few days ahead to confirm their wire limits, identification requirements, and any hold policy on large transfers. The morning of your wire is not the moment to discover a limit you didn’t know about.
Verify the Wire Instructions Before You Send
Timing means nothing if the money goes to the wrong account. Real estate wire fraud is not a theoretical risk. In 2024, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center received 9,359 real estate wire fraud complaints, with combined losses of $173.6 million.5FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center. 2024 IC3 Annual Report The typical scheme: a criminal quietly monitors email between you and the title company, then sends fake wire instructions from a spoofed address that looks almost identical to the real one. You wire your entire cash to close into the scammer’s account.
Legitimate wire instructions include the receiving bank’s name, a routing number, the escrow trust account number, an account name matching the title company’s legal name, and a file or reference number tied to your specific transaction. International buyers may also see a SWIFT code. Every field needs to be right. And here’s the rule that matters more than any other step in this process: never trust wire instructions received only by email. Call your escrow officer at a phone number you already have, one you obtained independently or received at the start of the transaction, not any number contained in the emailed instructions. Confirm every field verbally. This one habit is the most effective protection against losing six figures.
The file or reference number matters for a separate reason. Title companies may receive dozens of incoming wires on the same day, and that number is how yours gets matched to your transaction. A wrong file number doesn’t lose the money, but it can slow the match enough to delay closing.
At the Bank, and After You Send
At a branch, you’ll sign an authorization form and present valid ID. Online, expect multi-factor authentication. Either way, you confirm the recipient details one final time before the bank releases the transfer to Fedwire. Once submitted, it’s irrevocable. There is no cancel button.
Outgoing domestic wire fees generally run $25 to $45 and are usually charged on top of your cash to close, not included in it. Bank of America charges $30 for a domestic wire.6Bank of America. Make Domestic and International Bank Transfers in Our Mobile App Wells Fargo charges $25 for a digital wire and $40 for a branch wire.7Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo Digital Wires
After the wire goes out, ask for the Federal Reference Number. In Fedwire terms, this is the Input Message Accountability Data, or IMAD, a unique identifier the Federal Reserve assigns to your transfer.8Federal Reserve Financial Services. ISO 20022 Format Questions Your bank may call it a confirmation number or trace number. Get it in writing and send it to your escrow officer.
Because Fedwire settles in real time, funds typically arrive at the title company’s bank within minutes to a few hours.3Federal Reserve Board. Fedwire Funds Services The escrow team still has to verify the deposit and reconcile it against the ledger. Don’t assume the money arrived just because your bank shows the transaction as completed. Wait for the title company’s confirmation.
What a Late Wire Actually Costs
A wire that arrives after the deadline doesn’t just create awkwardness at the closing table. Many purchase contracts include a per diem penalty that a buyer owes the seller for each day closing is delayed, set either as a flat dollar figure or as a percentage of the purchase price.
The stakes rise sharply if your contract includes a “time is of the essence” clause. That language turns every deadline in the agreement into a hard legal boundary. Missing the closing date can be treated as a breach, potentially letting the seller cancel the deal, retain your earnest money, or pursue damages. Even without that clause, repeated delays can give the seller grounds to walk away.
On the lender side, a delayed wire means the loan doesn’t fund on schedule. Delays don’t save you money because interest accrues from the day the loan actually funds. They just introduce risk: your rate lock could expire, your employment verification could go stale, or conditions could shift enough to require more underwriting.
If You Wired to a Scammer
Speed decides the outcome. The FBI has recovered fraudulent wires when victims acted within hours, and the window closes quickly. In one 2024 case, the FBI’s Recovery Asset Team froze and returned $955,060 wired by a couple to a spoofed email posing as their real estate agent, because the complaint was filed promptly.5FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center. 2024 IC3 Annual Report
If you suspect a fraudulent wire, act immediately:
- Call your bank and request a wire recall. Ask them to contact the receiving bank to freeze the account, and give them the IMAD or confirmation number.
- Call the title company at a known, trusted number and confirm whether the instructions you followed were legitimate.
- File a complaint at ic3.gov. This triggers the FBI’s Financial Fraud Kill Chain, which coordinates with banks and law enforcement to freeze funds before the scammer can withdraw them.9U.S. Department of Justice. FBI International Kill Chain Process
- Contact your local FBI field office and the U.S. Secret Service field office.
- Call your bank back within 24 hours to confirm the recall was actually processed, not just logged.
Filing within 72 hours gives you the best chance of recovery, but the first few hours are the most important. Every hour that passes gives the scammer more time to move the funds beyond reach.