You’ve seen several homes and one has captured your heart and imagination. That’s great! Let’s talk details.
Before we can put an offer in on a home, we need some details for writing the offer. The offer, if accepted, is a legally binding document. We will need to put in an offer as soon as we can, within the first few hours of seeing the home if possible. We will need you to send us an email with a few more details.
- Full legal name of every person who will be on the contract.
- Email addresses and phone numbers for each person on the contract.
- Offer Price: Make sure you’ve had a discussion with us about the current sale to list price in the neighborhood, this will help you make an accurate and reasonable offer.
- Your walk away price: In some neighborhoods, you may get an acceptance, but most likely you’ll get a counter offer. Often, the counter is closer to list price than you offered, and the sellers are needing to negotiate a price that satisfies both parties. You can accept the counter, or counter back. Knowing what a what financial point you will walk from the property helps us with our negotiations.
- Closing Date: In Northern Virginia, the typical closing date is 30-45 days after your offer is accepted. You can sometimes request a longer closing date, but it isn’t always possible for the sellers to wait that long. Most often they are selling so that they too can move into a new home.
- Earnest Money: Typically, the earnest money deposit can be expected to be 1-2% of the sales price. This will be due within days of the offer being accepted. This payment will be applied to your down payment.
- Down Payment Amount: The contract outlines the details of the financial payments, we will need to know the amount you plan to put down on the home.
- Closing Cost Credits: Will you be asking for credits at closing? If you’re unsure of what this means, let’s have a conversation about that as well.
- Home Warranty: Will you be asking the sellers for a home warranty to cover the breakdown of any major appliances in the home?
- Contingencies: Are there any things that must happen before you can proceed with the purchase, such as selling your own home before you can close on the new home?
Once these questions have been discussed and answered, we will write up a contract and send it to you through a system called “DotLoop”. This is an extremely secure digital signature program that allows you to sign documents remotely and keeps our files on the purchase organized and our scheduled tasks on time.
If you’d like to review the contract before you sign, that’s fine. Just email [email protected] or call us at 703.539.2053 to let us know and we will email you a copy before signing. Once the signed offer is submitted, it can take 24-48 hours for the sellers to review and accept or counter. This waiting part is difficult, but worth it if it means you get your dream home. Try to be patient, every seller is different and while some may be able to make a quick decision, others may need time to think.
Have a question, I’ve got an answer. Give me a call at 703.539.2053 or email me at [email protected].
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