Made an offer, next steps?

Hi all,

We made an offer on a house yesterday. I guess the next step would be to see if they accepted our offer. But I am trying to get an idea of what the next steps would be and in what order.

Can someone give me an idea of a realistic timeline for everything? We don't really want to close until around December. Not sure if that is stretching it.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!
Andrea

Re: Made an offer, next steps?

P.S. I know we have to do an inspection at some point and also hire an attorney. I am not sure what happens first either.

Re: Made an offer, next steps?

New York State, right?

After you agree upon a sales price, they'll probably ask you to sign a binder. Some realtors ask for $ at this point, but you should not have to give them anything. (Some ask for $50-500, but I've never had to pay anything here - we've made two offers and didn't have to pay at the binder, though some people do. Try to convince them to waive this if they ask for money.) You'll also probably have to sign a lead paint disclosure.

The funny thing about the binder is that it's not really binding. It will be dependent on the inspection and you getting a mortgage. You will agree to how much you'll put down at contract and how much at closing. You want to put as little down at contract as you can get them to agree to -- but it could be as much as half your down payment. Don't put down any more than half your down payment at contract. (But contract comes later...)

After you sign the binder, you'll schedule your inspection. You should have retained an attorney by this point - if not, get one now. Once the report is in, decide if you want to renegotiate anything -- if you want them to do repairs, take the cost of certain repairs off the price of the house, renegotiate the price, etc. Once you come to an agreement on that, the seller's attorney should send your attorney a copy of the contract. Your attorney should review the contract and then review it with you to make sure it's accurate and you agree to it.

Once the contract is finalized (it may go through some changes), you will sign it. At this point, you will give your attorney a check for the earnest money deposit. This check is written out to the seller's attorney as escrow agent. The check is held by the seller's attorney in escrow until the closing. Your attorney will forward the signed contract and check to the seller's attorney, who will deposit the check after the sellers sign it.

Then your attorney will order title / title insurance and you will finalize your mortgage stuff. You'll probably need a survey and an appraisal for your mortgage company (they handle this). You should work on obtaining quotes for homeowner's insurance, as you'll need it effective the day you close.

I'd think that normal closing date is 30-60 days after contract, maybe as much as 90 days. December is not a stretch if the sellers agree to it. You have 30 days after the date in the contract to close. So, if your contract lists the closing date as "On or about December 15" you have until January 15 to close.

We had our inspector out within a week of signing the offer and we signed the contract a couple of weeks after that. We are moving very quickly, though, and are hoping to close late this week or early next week. We signed the contract in early August.

HTH!

Message edited 9/10/2007 9:59:47 AM.

Re: Made an offer, next steps?

Kara pretty much said it all!
When you made your offer, you should have included a closing date - so if you want Dec, that should have been part of the offer.

ETA: this was our time frame:
Made an offer in the beginning of March. Not much negotiating, we agreed on a sales price the same day. Had the inspection the next day, signed the binder after the inspection.
Contracts signed two weeks later.
Closing date on or about April 15th, closing date May 9th.

Message edited 9/10/2007 10:15:01 AM.

Re: Made an offer, next steps?