Oakland County Michigan Seller- You Accepted the Offer. Now What?
When we go over an offer to purchase from a buyer, I will go over price and terms as well as any contingencies. Typical contingencies are mortgage contingency, inspection contingency, subject to clean title, must appraise for at least sale price. And there are time frames for each contingency.
A normal offer will give 30 or 45 days to get a mortgage and the buyer must apply within 5 days. Usually 7 days for a home inspection and clean title prior to close. So let’s use these time frames to explain what happens next.
The buyer will call his/her loan officer and apply for the mortgage (formal mortgage application) but instruct his/her loan officer to not order the appraisal until after the home inspection. In the meantime I send a copy of the purchase agreement and pre-approval letter to our title company to get rolling on the title work.
Within the first week the buyer will need access to your house for approximately 3-4 hours. They may need to make 2 trips, depending on how many inspections they will have (radon requires the inspector to come back. Septic or mold inspection may require a second inspector). If everything is fine with the inspection, we should hear from an appraiser within a week or so. If there are problems with the inspection, the buyer will probably either back out of the offer or ask you to either make repairs or lower the price.
Assuming we get past the inspection ok, the appraiser will come out to the house. He/she will only be there around 15 minutes to maybe a half hour. Within a week or so the lender will get the appraisal back. An FHA appraisal may require some repairs. It will be addressed in the purchase agreement who is responsible for the repairs. An appraisal for a conventional mortgage is pretty much just justifying the sale price. For this example we are going to assume the appraisal comes back ok. A later post will address low appraisals.
So now your house has cleared the inspection and appraisal contingencies. We are probably at least 2 weeks into the transaction at this point. Your title work should be back and clean since I order pre-title at the time of listing and any problems can be taken care of at that time.
Now we just wait until the lender finishes approving the buyer and we set a closing. The buyer will probably walk through the house prior to closing to make sure it’s in the same condition as when they wrote the offer. If possession is at close, they will also want to make sure you have moved out.
You will need to call the utility companies and let them know when you will be moving out and the name of the future new owners. It would be a courtesy to leave any manuals for appliances, or furnace, etc. for the new owner.
Then we all proceed to the closing and it’s a happy happy day for all!
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Southeast Michigan Real Estate 