What to expect when Buying a Home   “The Standard Process”

Find a Realtor to represent you, which we would welcome the opportunity and sign a buyer’s agreement stating I am working for you, and you are allowing me to work for you. I don’t cost you a thing. I only charge if it is a for sale by owner and they are not willing to pay a fee. Any property listed is already under contract to pay a fee by the seller.  You only need to work with one (1) agent, as we all have access to the same inventory.  The difference between agents is the levels of service they offer and attention to detail. 

Get Pre-Approved: This gives you buying power and allows you to know your price range to look in w/an idea of what payments you are comfortable with. Just because you are pre-approved for a certain amount, doesn’t mean you need to spend that amount. You wouldn’t go to a job interview without a resume!

It's Time to Find a Home:  Once you have a price range, then it is time to start looking. Know your timeline, price range and a general idea of what will be “Home” for you. We will meet and narrow the search process. If we don’t find anything right away, then we continue to search my system and you can also feel free to search the SteFaniePrattHomes under “all local listings” on your own to get familiar with the market. There is no magical number of homes you need to look at to find a home. Once you walk into that home that feels like “home”, you will know it and that is the one that we need to proceed with.

Writing the Offer: This is where we negotiate the terms, such as price, date of possession, personal property to be left with the home, etc. You will be putting earnest money down at this time ($500/$100,000 is the standard), which will be held in Coldwell Banker Devonshire’s non-interest bearing account, so it will be cashed. At closing this money will come back to you in a credit form on what is called a HUD statement and used towards your closing costs or purchase price, whatever the bank has discussed with you. The check is written out to the seller, but it is still your money. Another term for this is “good faith money” or a deposit. We will then sign a contract present it to the seller to accept or negotiate. Once agreed upon, the seller will sign and changes will need to be initialed, if needed. 

Choose an Attorney: I have attorneys that I can recommend if you do not have one. Please look under “Local Partners” on my website, under Attorneys. You are not obligated to use an attorney, however this is a legal contract and it can be in your best interest. They coordinate the deed, title work, prorations from the seller to you, as well as some additional work that is out of my licensing area. I use an attorney for my personal transactions, so you can make your own judgment from there. The sellers have to have an attorney to prepare the deed and to perform the necessary documents to transfer the property to you at closing. If they choose not to, then I strongly encourage you to make sure you have one. The typical fee is $400, depending on the services. You will need to talk to them to confirm the fee.

What now? Once accepted the home is placed pending and the approval process goes back to the bank to begin ordering the appraisal. This is the commitment letter that says you are cleared to purchase the home and it is worth the money you have offered for it. Don’t be surprised if the appraisal comes back at exactly the price we offered, as long as it is not below. If it doesn’t appraise out, the seller will need to come down on the price, or you will have to pay more out of pocket, which is not the wise of the two options. If the seller doesn’t come down on price, then the contract can be voided out and your earnest money comes back to you, as long as we follow the dates on the contract, which we will.

Get Insurance: Contact your insurance agent to get a quote for your new home. You will need to show this paid to your lender. You will be required to pay 1 year in advance when you purchase this. Your lender typically escrows 3 months of insurance at closing to get your escrow accounts started, unless you choose to not escrow. This is a lender and insurance requirement.

The Home Inspection: You will need to be at the inspection, if at all possible, for the last 1/2hr - 1 hour. The reasoning for you do not need to be there through the entire time is we need the inspector to concentrate on the inspection, not us. If he is distracted, he may miss something. Let him do the job you are paying for. I will need to be there for this time period. The only people needed at this inspection are you, the inspector, and I. The sellers are not here, nor the selling agent. After the inspection is done, we need to evaluate it and make a request list to present to the seller, with a copy of the inspection. We then negotiate what needs to be done. Once negotiated, we are just waiting on final approval of the loan from your lender

Commitment: Once loan approval is done, we set a closing date. Call the utility companies at least 1 week, if not more, before the date of closing to put them in your name. The seller will be calling as well to shut them off. If you do not call, and they shut them off, you will have to pay a re-connect fee.

 Approximately 48 hours before the closing date, we will need to walk through the property to make sure the items on the inspection are done, the home is in the condition we contracted it to be in and there are no additional problems that have risen up. If there is a problem, we will need to contact the other side to get the issues rectified.

Closing Day:  We will go to a title company, or attorney’s office for you to sign documents for the loan agreement. This is when your lender will fund the loan and the seller will give you possession of your new home. The people that will be here are the sellers, their agent, their attorney, you, I, our attorney, sometimes the lender and the closing agent. If you need to bring children, please have something to occupy them so that you can concentrate on your documents. This normally takes about an hour.

Congratulations!! You are now a homeowner!