Accepted Offer! Now What?

Accepted Offer!! What's Next?

Congratulations, your offer has been accepted! So now what do we do? Well, it's time to start that journey towards closing.

It is a super exciting time once your offer gets accepted, but we can't just stop there. Our goal isn't an accepted offer; it's to cross that finish line, close and move you into that home. So we need to make sure that we're working through contingencies and not missing any contractual deadlines.

On your end there are a number of things that need to get going right away. I call this the "blitz period" because a lot of things happen really, really quickly. This is the time to get inspections scheduled, pay your earnest money, get all the documentation moving forward for your mortgage and work through the appraisal.

I recommend that you have a home inspection and if your house is on well and septic, you inspect those as well. Depending on the situation, we may also recommend that you test water quality, look for radon or possibly a chimney inspection, swimming pool inspection, or a variety of other tests and inspections depending on the property itself and your situation. Once all the inspections are finished, we'll get together to discuss what, if anything, needs to be repaired, or if we need to request any monetary contributions from the seller.

At this time, we're looking for what are called defects. Defects affect the health or safety of the occupants, significantly shorten the lifespan of the property if they are not repaired or if they're not repaired will significantly devalue the property. We're not looking for items that we were aware of before we wrote the offer or items that may be cosmetic.

If you are securing a loan on the property, it is super important that you stay in constant contact with your loan officer and are very timely in the delivery of the documentation that they need to move forward on your financing. My team will check in with them frequently as well to make sure that everything is moving along as expected.

In regards to the appraisal, the goal is for the appraised value to come back at or above what the offer to purchase says is the purchase price. If it doesn't, depending on how we've negotiated the contract, we may need to renegotiate the purchase price after we get the results. We need to understand that what's happening in the market may affect how we strategize and go about negotiating the inspection or appraisal if necessary.

Throughout this process you'll also line up movers, set up utilities and start packing for the big day. Be careful not to do things that could jeopardize your financing without speaking to your lender first. Items such as changing jobs or taking on additional debt could have catastrophic effects on the ability to get to the closing table.

To get started on your home buying journey, get in touch with my team at theminterteam.com/contact, message us on socials, or give us a call. We would love to serve you on your home buying journey. Let's connect soon.