Bigdawg, we had a different issue when we built our house. We worked directly with the builder and said we planned to pay in cash, no mortgage. They asked for $10,000 down, with the rest due upon completion. They accepted our personal check, no problem. 3 months later, at 4 PM the day before we were due to meet with the builder at 9 AM for closing, a woman from the title company called. She said that everything was set for closing the next day. We had to have a cashier's check for the balance due, and she stated the amount.
Uh, what?
We didn't have the money in a local bank account. It was at TDAmeritrade, all liquid. Yes, I was naive and thought it would be no problem to present another personal check to the builder for the 6 figure balance due.
At the time, I didn't know if it was possible to get a cashier's check drawn on our brokerage account, let alone that fast! Even if we'd had the money sitting in a local bank, it would have been too late to get one before closing the next morning. I told the woman these things. Then she got nasty and said that we wouldn't be able to move into our house then!
The builder's office was already closed for the day. I panicked and started crying. I looked up the owner's name in the phone book and called him at home. He'd never met us before. I explained the situation and he told me not to worry about it. The next morning we met with him and his son. They had some choice words for the woman at the title office. They'd already called the title office to try and work something out. They wrote out a check on their own account to present to the title office and accepted our personal check as payment in full for the house. All ended well.
Even though it was my bad to assume a personal check would be OK, at no time did anyone tell us our balance due had to be in a specific form of payment. It was our first time doing anything like this. It was completely moronic to be told at 4 PM how much we owed by 9 AM and, BTW, it has to be a cashier's check.