The perfect first home in Easley, SC - colors you can live with, great neighbors, closet space that fits. Now that you've found your new home, where do you go from here? Your next step is to negotiate a contract on that home, before another buyer beats you to it. Your REALTOR will help you through this part, but if you're serious about the house, your offer needs to show it. In Upstate SC, a serious offer that is contingent on financing (not a cash offer) is within 10% of the list price. If you need the seller to credit you money towards your closing costs, you need to add that amount to the price you offer. Say, for example, the house you want is listed fairly at $100,000 and you want the seller to pay $3000 of your closing costs and provide a home warranty priced at $500. You should offer no less than $93,500 in this market to get the sellers' attention. You should expect the seller to counter that offer and end up somewhere around 4-5% below list (so 95,000 to 96,000 plus concessions, or $99,500). If the house is already overpriced (your REALTOR should know), you can start lower, but it's not likely you'll be able to work out a discount below fair value. Remember that sellers are emotional creatures, too, and if you start too low you'll get their shackles up and kill the negotiations altogether.
Your REALTOR will walk you through all the rest of the terms on your first home in Easley, SC and the timeline for inspections and closing, then get your signatures and go to work negotiating for you. Negotiations can take up to a week and can still fall apart at the last minute over five hundred dollars, so plan to be patient. It's a very exciting and nervous time, but know your REALTOR and the listing agent are doing everything they can to put the deal together for you and the seller. If you want the house, and the seller wants to sell it, you should be able to come to terms near market value.
Once you have a contract signed by you and the seller, your REALTOR will forward it to your mortgage planner. The planner will send you a list of documents he needs to get the ball rolling. Get these together as quickly as you can; every day you wait up front is another day you can't move in yet at the end. The mortgage process should take 30 to 60 days, depending on what type of loan you're doing. Your mortgage planner can give you more details about the timeline, based on what loan you're applying for.
I'll blog again soon about the contract period and what to expect. But for now, get started. We won't likely see a better time to buy for 10 or 12 years! And if you need a good REALTOR in upstate SC, contact Heather West at 864-607-1189 or Ty Carey at 864-230-2070. We at Dreamfinders have held the hands of hundreds of first time buyers through the years, and we'll get you there safely!
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