So, you are ready to buy a home. You’ve been working with a Realtor, looking at properties, and are ready to put in an offer. How does it work?
Well, it is nothing like on TV. We can’t just make a phone call, and tell you that they’ve accepted your offer. Real estate contracts have to be in writing, so until the contract is fully signed by both parties, it is not an agreement!
Hopefully, you have been pre-approved by a lender, and have shared that information with me. We will sit down and talk about the property and the current market, and figure out our strategy to get the seller to pick your offer. Then, there is a lot of paperwork and decisions to be made. I will go over all of this with you, get your signatures and initials on every page, and I deliver the written offer to the property’s listing broker. Based on the deadline you’ve chosen to put on your offer, we wait for a response. This typically happens within a day or two.
The seller could make changes to the offer, in which case you would have to agree or could change it again and send it back. Once both sides have accepted and signed everything, we would have mutual acceptance, and the clock begins to tick on all of the deadlines involved.
Those deadlines include: getting your earnest money deposited and opening escrow, inspection period, formal loan application for the purchase, etc.
I oversee all of this and follow it through until you are the new owner! Think of me as a general contractor, making sure all the pieces fall into place, and your purchase is smooth and on time.
