Years ago the Los Angeles County Recorder sometimes offered “special recordings”.  This is when the buyer’s loan funded (lender wrote the check) and recorded (transferred title) the same day.   Sometime after (Prop 13) budget cuts this practice discontinued.  Today, a buyer’s loan funds and the following business day it records.

Currently, title companies rotate the order in which they record. One day Orange Coast Title will be first in line and buyers with that title company will be closing their escrows first. The next day, Orange Coast Title will be second and so on, until they reach number sixteen and start the process again. Knowing which order you are recording offers the parties in the escrow to have some indication as to when the closing will take place.

In most real estate transactions a buyer is not given keys until AFTER the transfer of title (recording).  But as with most aspects of real estate, possession is negotiated in the Residential Purchase Agreement.