Making an offer on a house

Whenever you make an offer you need a pre-approval letter from a mortgage lender or bank stating that they pre-approved you for a certain amount for a mortgage. It’s a good idea to get one early on so that you know what price range you should really be shopping in. Whoever you get that letter from is not the place that you necessarily need to get your mortgage from so don't be too concerned about that. This can be done online or over the phone and shouldn't take long. The person will ask you some questions and pull up your credit and according to that will let you know how much you will be able to borrow. I can give you a list of names to choose from.

Then when you are ready to make an offer we will meet and write up and offer. I will need to know how much you will put down and how much you will borrow. Normally people put down 20% but it can be done with less or with more down too. Generally if you put down at least 20% you do not have to pay PMI (private mortgage insurance). After we negotiate back and forth with the price with the seller we then settle on a final purchase price. Then the contract that we wrote up is revised with the new price and it is signed by the buyer and the seller. The contract then goes to both buyer and sellers attorney's. If you need me to recommend a few attorneys I can.

Attorney review starts and that usually runs about 3 business days. This is the period that changes are made to the contract to protect you. This is also the time that things can be added or removed from the contract that we originally wrote. Also during this period the seller can accept offers from other buyers if they choose to, so I usually like to not waste too many days on this if we don’t have to.

Once attorney review is over the house is then officially "under contract". We start to count 10 business days from this date and that is when the buyer's first deposit is due ( usually 10%) . During these 10 days the buyer schedules their home inspection. I can give you a list of approved home inspectors. This is done quickly so that you know if you are satisfied with the home physically before you put down your 10%. Before you put down your 10% is also the time to negotiate any repairs or credits that might have come up during the home inspection.

Time to write the 10% check - usually made out to the seller's attorney's trust account - they hold it in their attorney escrow account until the closing.

At this point everything but the mortgage is finalized. You are usually working on getting all the necessary paperwork to complete the mortgage application so that you can get your mortgage commitment. By this point the lender has already sent out an appraiser to the house to make sure the value of the house is justified for them to lend a certain amount out to you. Once you have the mortgage commitment then we are good to close.

When we get an actual closing date and time confirmed from the attorney then it is time to call the utility companies to set up your accounts. I have a list to give to you.

Time to move in - I also can give you some recommendations on movers...just ask me.

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