The home buying paperwork process has improved post-housing crisis. There is less total paperwork, and much of it changed to be easier to read and understand. I've done it 3 times, once before the crisis and twice after, and I've never felt rushed. If the closing company makes you feel pressured you should push back, they should appreciate the gravity of the process.

I bought a house just over a month ago. I never met the sellers, sellers' realtor, or anyone else involved in the transaction until the closing date in person. Everything was done digitally including near all communication. I was able to take as much time as I wished to read over everything I was signing. On the closing day it I met the sellers for about five minutes and was with the lawyers for about thirty minutes. The whole process is vastly improved.

I've signed mortgage documents several times in the past few years, and I've had the opposite experience. The first time they openly scoffed at me for taking the time to read it. Took about two hours to read >100 pages.

I had a very different experience.

When I bought my house, we were taken into a room with the selling and buying agent, and they read the mortgage document aloud, and asked if we had any questions after each page that we had to sign.

They said that was the law in the area. It took about 3 hours, and every party went home with a copy with the 4th copy getting filed with the county.

You should get all the closing docs three days before closing so you do have time to read them

You still need to verify the forms that you are actually signing match the forms you were previously given, don't you?

When I bought my house, I absolutely compared forms. I had my laptop open on the table and went over the documents line by line. Yes, I had read everything before closing but I wanted to ensure everything was correct. I had found two mistakes, one in the mortgage document and one in the title company's math, prior to closing. It pays to review these things.

The handful of other people at the signing were mildly annoyed that I was being so cautious but I didn't care. It's my money. I'm normally a polite and shy person but if I had a question and everyone else was making small talk, I would just start talking.

A similar thing happened to me. They got my gender wrong on the preliminary form! Furthermore, after telling them, they didn't correct it on the final forms! We crossed it out, corrected it and everyone initialed it, but what a waste of time.