Once the house hunt has yields an exciting discovery, the question ALL first time home buyers ask is: “sooooo….what do we do now?”
The answer I always give is the same; and here it is in an easy to understand step by step process:
– your real estate agent will call the agent who has the home listed for sale (if it’s someone other than them) to let them know that you are interested, and ask questions regarding potential closing dates, inclusions/exclusions, “would they consider leaving the fridge?”, etc – the more information your agent can get in the preliminary stages will better your chances of the offer being accepted. Price is the term most people are concerned with but other terms of the offer such as closing date, conditions, etc are all equally important (sometimes more important) as the price.
– your agent will then compile a list of recent sales and active comparable homes for you to consider a price range for your offer, and where you might anticipate the final sale price range to fall (or know where to draw the line if the seller has unrealistic expectations).
– your agent will then draft the offer that reflects all of your wishes, and the conditions (if any) that you want to see reflected in the offer (i.e. – home inspection, financing approval, etc)
– next your agent will present the offer to the seller’s agent (and potentially the sellers) who have four basic options:
1) accept the offer as is
2) reject the offer
3) do nothing, and let the offer expire
4) counter offer
– the most likely scenario is a number of counter offers from buyer to seller and back again until both parties accept the offer subject to the conditions.
– the buyers and sellers have a time frame to fulfill their conditions (most commonly 5-7 business days) at which time, if one or more of the conditions have not been met, the deal will be null and void. If all of the conditions are met, the agreement of sale will become firm and binding (this is when the sold sign would go on the house!)
– at this point in time the real estate lawyers take over the transaction and go through a number of processes such as a title search, registering the mortgage, etc so that everything falls in place for the deal to close (usually 30-90 days from the date of the fulfillment of all conditions.
– closing day comes and once the sellers have moved out and the buyers get the keys to their new home!
That in a nutshell is how a home is purchased, and I hope this will serve as a good guideline the next time you find “the right house”.
