Financing
Finding the right home or property for you is your primary goal, but enjoying it with a lower payment and better mortgage terms is a very important secondary goal. We’ve researched and worked with many mortgage bankers and lenders in the local real estate market, and we’ll help you to contact those that are the best fit for you and your financial picture.
Negotiations
Inspections in a real estate deal encompass many property aspects:
- Structure
- Roof
- Mechanical equipment
- Plumbing
- Electrical
- Pests & insect infestation
- Mold & other environmental hazards
- Wells & water quality
- Septic systems
While your deal may not require them all, it’s our job to help you to order the proper inspections and make sure that they’re completed on time. Failure to complete inspections and object to their results by deadline dates can lead to the buyer’s inability to take any action. We make sure that this doesn’t happen.
We’re here for our buyers to assist in these negotiations as, next to selling price, inspections and subsequent repairs are the biggest killer of real estate deals. Sometimes creativity needs to be applied to keep your real estate deal moving. We maintain an extensive contractor list that can yield just the right contractor to get a job done at a reasonable price for the seller.
The key to keeping a deal going with inspection problems is for us to be involved every step of the way. We’ll make sure that every resource is employed to keep your real estate purchase on track and gain every possible concession from the sellers.
Title Insurance
There are restrictions and covenants revealed in your Title Binder or Commitment package that you may not have known about when you made your offer. Your title insurance binder will include the latest documents as recorded at the courthouse. We’re committed to helping you to uncover every important item in your title insurance documents.
There are two sections at the front of the title insurance binder that summarize what’s included. These two sections are the “Requirements,” and the “Exceptions.” Requirements are things the title company says must be done or criteria met before their binder is good and title insurance will be issued. The “Exceptions” are where you’ll find the things that could be a problem for you.
Most of the benefit of title insurance comes from protection from threats to your ownership or things that come up about property lines or encroachments. When something is already recorded at the courthouse, the title company will not cover you against it in the future, as it’s a “done deal,” and normally can’t be changed. Those restrictions and covenants are that way. So, anything that’s already of record will be “excepted,” and you just need to be sure that there isn’t anything in that pile you can’t live with.
You’re the customer, and your money is making this deal work, so don’t be shy about asking any and all questions you have about the documents, requirements and exceptions in the title binder. There are deadlines for objections to what you find that could result in the deal dying, so don’t hesitate to get right to the examination of this document and the attachments.
Contract to Closing Process
It’s both exciting and stressful negotiating a real estate purchase contract. Once it’s signed by the sellers, there are still more negotiations, document deliveries, inspections, title details and mortgage tasks to be accomplished to reach a successful closing and walk away with the keys to your new real estate property.
There are more than 50 specific due dates and tasks on our average transaction checklist, but an overview of a few includes:
- Post contract delivery of documents to the title company and ordering of a title binder or commitment.
- Deposit of earnest money and delivery of receipt to the buyer client.
- Helping my buyers to order inspections and coordinating them and providing access to assure they’re completed on time.
- Coordinating timely delivery of any documents objecting to disclosures, inspection results, or title binder issues discovered.
- Coordinating appraisal and appraiser access.
- Working with mortgage company and coordinating delivery of documents they require.
- Assisting my buyers with any negotiations related to contingencies, inspections or documents.
- Constant monitoring of status of all processes at the title company.
There are a number of companies and people involved in a real estate transaction. Each has specific duties and requirements, and each is concentrating on doing a good job for you. However, their focus is narrow, targeted on their specific niche in the deal. We’re your “go-to” resource to bring it all together and coordinate the activities of all of these companies.
Our overriding goal is a smooth transaction, and getting you through meeting all deadlines is one of our jobs. We are obsessed with proper follow–up and detailed coordination of every step of the closing process for our buyer clients. It’s critical that we make all deadlines and keep the transaction on track to avoid defaulting on any terms of the contract. We’ll keep your real estate transaction on track, and you’ll have the time and advice you need to assure you’ve covered all of the bases prior to closing.