Contract to Closing for Home Sellers
Get the information you as a home seller need to make educated, informed decisions about the home selling process in today's real estate market.
The process of taking a signed residential purchase contract through to closing involves a great many details, deliveries and document submissions. There can be more than 50 tasks and deadline deliveries on a normal residential seller side real estate transaction checklist. I take my responsibilities seriously in the processing of all documents and managing the meeting of all deadlines. I coordinate all of this for my home sellers by staying involved and communicating with all involved parties.
Title – I work closely with the title company and attorney, ensuring documents and deliveries are processed in a timely manner. When material defects and items of importance such as liens and fines are discovered during the title examination, it’s important to have legal guidance to clear the objections. Not being an attorney and not being able to offer legal advice, it’s important to me that I maintain relationships with a list of legal resources available to home sellers, when needed. They’ve cleared minor ‘clouds’ and they’ve cleared major storms. They’ve assisted in reducing and settling city fines and violations. They’re legal professionals who will share in in the common goal of getting to the closing table with minimal stress and costs.
Inspections, Survey & Appraisal – These three items are the main reasons most sales fall apart. Prior to marketing your home, I’ll evaluate and share any signs of challenges that may occur when an inspection is completed. Once under contract, my job is to coordinate access for inspectors and the appraiser, and then to accept deliveries of reports containing the objections or correction actions requested of the buyer. Every instance of delivery of an inspection and/or buyer objection requires a response in most cases, and there are deadlines. I stay on top of these deadlines, making sure reports are delivered to you on time and extensions are put into place if needed. I’ll be in strong communications with you to respond within required time lines, guiding you and helping you understand the process and requirements. Failure to do so could obligate you to repairs or other corrections or kill the deal. I’ll be prepared to negotiate on your behalf as required.
Repair Negotiations – If the buyer submits requirements for corrective actions to items on reports, I’ll work with you to evaluate the validity and costs of those requirements. Together we will decide a plan of action, being sure to respond and not react. I'll be there to negotiate on your behalf to minimize your your obligations. Should you agree to make certain repairs, there will be deadlines associated with completion, and possibly requirements for the buyer’s inspector to return and re-inspect for completion and repair quality. I’ll work with to coordinate estimates if needed, work orders and additional inspections, while assisting in keeping all of this on track with you.
Lender Document Coordination – One of the leading causes of delayed closings is some problem with funding due to lender last minute requirements or other document demands. I’ll be monitoring all document flows possible and following up on the lender’s deadlines in effort to prevent delays.
As the seller, you aren’t getting a mortgage, but you need to be very concerned with the buyer’s ability to do so and their lender’s process and ability to meet deadlines and fund at closing. The processes of application, underwriting, appraisal, loan commitment, clear-to-close and funding are all topics of concern. Knowing underwriting and appraisal challenges kill a lot of deals, I stay involved in the complete process from start to finish.