After Offer Acceptance
Once the sellers have accepted and returned your offer it becomes the contract on which the transaction is based. It is vital all the actions specified in the contract are completed in a timely manner.
As your Realtor® the largest part of my job is now beginning. I have to coordinate all the parties involved including the home inspectors, WDO inspection, closing attorney and work with the selling agent to ensure the sellers are "on-track" too.
The first thing you must do is make the actual mortgage application, usually you have only 5 days from the date of acceptance of offer to do this. If you have followed all of the previous steps the mortgage application is a simple process. If you have already selected a mortgage company and obtained pre-approval then a short meeting with their mortgage broker is all that is required.
Most mortgage companies provide loan approval within 30 days. They will have an appraiser visit the property to ensure the price agreed in the purchase and sale contract is inline with true market value. The mortgage company will also obtain reports on your credit history and worthiness to guarantee you are a good credit risk. Once the Mortgage company is satisfied the home is being sold at a price not dramatically exceeding market value and you are a good credit risk they will grant approval.
I will also arrange for the WDO inspection(Wood Destroying Organisms) and home inspections to take place. I strongly advise every buyer has a home inspection, even for a brand new home. Often defects can exist that can not be seen from a normal walk through of the home. The home inspector you select should be a member of ASHI, these inspectors follow a ridged set of guidelines when looking for potential problems.
The next thing to arrange is "Title Insurance". Title insurance provides you with a policy that insures that you have clear title to the property. Sometimes people attempt to sell homes that have liens and other emcumberments from interested thirds parties. For example if the current owners have not paid their city taxes or own a builder for work done on the home these problems may have developed into liens that prevent you from owning the home. A "Title Search" will have been performed on the home, this hopefully reveals any problems, however to be absolutely safe you should also take out Title Insurance. If you are purchasing the home with a loan your lender will demand you purchase Title Insurance. It is customary for the seller to pay for the owner’s policy, however, you will have to pay a fee to the title insurance company, for the Lender’s Policy.
Once all inspections are complete and any problems that were discovered have been resolved by the sellers we will be ready to close the transaction and you can start thinking about moving day. I have compiled a checklist which will help you with your packing and moving experience. If you are planning to move on a weekend in the summer months it would be advisable to have your movers scheduled well ahead of time. Movers tend to be busiest at this time and failing to plan ahead will at best make the process more expensive and possibly delay your move altogether.
All preliminary closing actions are successfully complete. Next the big day - You finally become the legal owner of your new home.
