Buyer FAQ Making An Offer To Purchase A Home Part 3

Buyer FAQ Making An Offer To Purchase A Home Part 3

This post follows:  

Buyer FAQ What Does A Buyer Pay Their Buyers Agent

Buyer FAQ What Is The First Thing A New Home Buyer Should Do Part 1

Buyer FAQ What A Buyer Need To Know About Purchasing A Home Part 2

When making an offer to purchase a home in Alabama, specifically Huntsville and Madison Alabama the typical documents submitted to the listing agent are: 

Financed or Cash Sales Contract...

...that details offer price, type of loan if applicable, closing dates, various disclosures, stipulations and any special provisions.  Your Realtor will go over every detail contract with you so that you completely understand it's meaning.

Inspection Addendum...

...which is very time specific and the only document that has "time is of the essence" pre-written into it.  The buyer has a set time frame to have the home inspected and issue the seller a Request For Repairs.  The seller in turn has a specified number of days to respond. If either party fails to act within their allowed time frame it is presumed that if buyers at fault they are accepting the home with no repairs, if seller then they are accepting the request for repairs.  Additionally, the buyers pre-approval letter and copy of earnest money check are sent to the listing agent.

Waiting for a response from the seller

 So now your offer has been sent to the listing agent who discusses its merits with the seller who decides to either accept, counter or reject without countering your offer.  The best scenario is an accepted offer which now becomes a contract legal and binding subject to any contingencies once signed by the seller.  You move forward with home inspections and your lender processes your loan. Usually the day before or morning of closing you will do a final walk through, then close and are handed the keys.  That sounds great, but transactions don't usually go that smooth.  If your offer was countered by the seller that means they objected to a contingency, price or some other term in the contract and have offered you a counter offer.  The ball is now in your court to either counter or accept and move forward with a contract or end negotiations.  Sometimes, the buyer and seller can't get together and move on to other homes or interested parties with return of earnest money to the buyer.  Occasionally and often the most frustrating is when the seller totally rejects in writing or does not respond at all...usually it's because of a very low ball offer and the sellers are offended or some other stringent contingency.  Buyers and sellers need to treat a home purchase or sale as a business transaction and remove emotion.  Otherwise sellers don't sell homes and buyers may miss out on the perfect home.

Assuming you have an accepted offer and are through the inspection period, repairs have been made, appraisal and financing is progressing...the home is now changed to pending status...you are only waiting to close and be given the new keys. 

Closing

I like to do the final walk through the morning of closing just to make sure the home is left in proper condition, broom swept, repairs made and all appliances & fixtures that conveyed are present.  Also making sure there's no new dings on the walls or scratches on woodwork as the seller moved out.

Closings usually take about an hour depending on the transaction complexity, straight sale, cash, foreclosure or short sale.  Be sure to bring at least one form of ID and two are best.  Other than that you will need certified funds if you are bring money to the table...the closing attorney will let you know the amount before closing.

This pretty much has been a rough draft of the transaction of buying a home from home search to closing.  There really is much more going on behind the scene and other documents that may be necessary, but your Realtor will explain the process and steps as necessary.  I'll follow up with one final Part 4 summary post...kind of a "Cliffs Notes" of the process

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