BUYERS RESOURCES

Once you've viewed a home you'd like to move forward with purchasing, we need to write up an offer to send to the sellers. You're offer will be based on several factors: 1) asking price 2) CMA price 3) your desire to purchase a home. This is were Boot Team Realty really gets to work for you. We write up, send over and negotiate the offer for you. We are your link to communicating with the sellers. We are here to provide you with comps and reliable information that will allow you to make the best decision. We have years of negotiation experience!

EARNEST MONEY

Earnest money is just money you put down as a good-faith gesture that you’re serious about buying a house. Typically it’s 1% of the purchase price. It must be turned over to the title company within 3 days from the time the contract was executed. 

While you wait to close on your house, the money is deposited into an escrow account with the title company.

If you terminate the contract for pre-negotiation reason within the contract, you will receive your earnest money back. If you breach the contract for reasons outside the contract, the title company releases the earnest money to the sellers. 

Earnest money is applied to your closing costs at the end of the transaction. 

​

OPTION PERIOD

Once you have executed a contract on a house, you will begin your option period. This is an allotted (usually 7-10 days - including weekends and holidays) time to inspect the home and decide if you'd like to continue in the contract. You must pay for this time. The amount you pay and the amount of days you get is negotiated in the offer. During this time you will pay an inspector to come in and inspect the house. Your inspector will look for anything that is out of code or any possible damage to the home. If they suspect any damage that is beyond normal wear and tear on a home - they may suggest you have a specialist in that area complete a more thorough inspection. We have a list of preferred vendor under our Business Directory tab to help you find a reliable professional.

​

Once you've had all inspections completed and gather all the information you can on the house, you will decide if you'd like to negotiate any repairs or terminate your contract. If you wish to continue with the contract, we will prepare a list of possible repairs to present to the sellers to have repair at their expense prior to closing on the house. We will again enter negotiations to come to an agreement.  

APPRAISAL

Once you've passed the option period, the next big step is the appraisal of the house you are purchasing. You will order your appraisal through your lender. The appraiser usually comes out sometime during weeks 2-3 after executing the contract. They evaluate the house/property based on a comparison approach. What this means is they gather information about the house by finding other homes within a mile and sold in the past year that are most comparable. They make adjustments to the price of the comparable home in order to make it the most comparable and this is how we get the appraised price. 

​

Once the appraisal comes it, we will be informed by the buyers agent if the property "met value" (meaning it is worth the contract price and the lender can move forward with your loan) or if the property appraised for a lesser value. If the does appraisal comes in short, your lender can not give you a mortgage for more than the appraisal amount. At this point we must re-enter negotiations and come to an agreement on how we are going to handle the deficit in price. 

TITLE POLICY/TITLE INSURANCE

Your title company will send you a title commitment. You need to read this. It will tell you if they will be issuing a title policy/insurance or not. You want to be sure you have a title policy. This ensures you that the title is clear and free to be transferred to you. The policy protects you if for any reason down the road someone tries to lay claim on your property. If the title company will not issue a policy, this means something is keeping them from being 100% sure that someone doesn't have an interest in the property.

PROPERTY INSURANCE

Your lender will require that you have property insurance in order to approve your loan. This will be a requirement for underwriting. Be sure that if your insurance company is going to send someone out to be sure they can insure the home it is done prior to closing.

FINANCING PERIOD

Another item you negotiate in your offer is your financing period - typically 21 days. This is the allotted amount of time you have to get an official approval from your lender. This is not the same as a "pre-approval". An approval is when your lender has gather all the documents needed to send your loan to underwrite and they know they will be able to issue you a mortgage based on your income, credit score, and any additional items they requested. If at any point during the financing period you hear from your lender and you will not be approved for a lot, you must terminate your contract and you will receive your earnest money back. If you're loan isn't approved and the financing period has ended, the sellers get to retain your earnest money as payment for taking their home off the market while you tried to obtain approval from your lender.

UNDERWRITING

Once you've submitted all the documentation to your lender and they have received the appraisal - it is sent to an underwriter. The underwriter considers the three C's - credit, capacity, collateral. If all of these factors pass their inspection the loan is approved. If something is missing then things are put on hold to gather more documentation/information or they deny the you loan. 

​

The three C's:

• Credit - your credit score

• Capacity - your ability to afford the monthly payments with all your other debits and financial responsibilities. You'll hear "debt to income ratio used for this. 

• Collateral - if the house appraised then the collateral is good
  
  

CLOSING

Congratulations! If you have made it through the previously listed steps then you are CLEAR TO CLOSE! WE can set a closing date at the title company and go sign for your new home! After you sign the paperwork, you will not get keys or have access to the house right away. You must wait to hear the sweet words - "WE HAVE FUNDED" This means your deposit has been paid and your lender has released the funds from you loan to the sellers. At this point you can get the keys and start moving!