Coalescence time plotted against the average binary hardening parameter, s = d(1/a)/dt. Small circles show binaries from our best-fit semianalytic model, with colors indicating the inner logarithmic slope of the postscouring density profile, λ (see Equation (21)), immediately after coalescence. Large circles show a subset of binaries from the high-resolution, gas-free, direct N-body simulations of K. Holley-Bockelmann et al. (2025), which include nonzero initial eccentricities and prograde binary orbits relative to the host galaxy rotation. These simulations initialize binaries at separations of ∼10²–10³ pc, substantially smaller than the typical initial separations of ∼10 kpc in our model, and therefore yield systematically shorter total coalescence times. Since t_c depends on the integral of the hardening history (including the dynamical friction stage) the agreement between the models, despite very different methods and initial conditions, suggests that in gas-poor major mergers the coalescence timescale is largely regulated by the stellar-hardening phase once the binary reaches the Galactic center.