We just wanted to give you an overview of what to expect during your purchase transaction, and this is for people that are using a mortgage loan to get that done. We’ll have another video for people who are doing an all-cash transaction.
So basically, there are three main streams you’re going to be dealing with. One is the process of working with your lender; the other is going to be the process of working with the title company, and the third is going to be what we’re going to do with the property itself.
As far as once your offer gets accepted, the first thing we’re going to have you do is get with your lender as soon as possible. They need to disclose to you the terms of your mortgage, what your interest rate is going to be, what your monthly payment will be, and how much money you’re going to need out-of-pocket to complete the purchase. They’re also going to order the appraisal, which they need to get done just so we can make sure the value that you’re purchasing at is okay from the lender’s point of view.
Number two is the process of getting your earnest money deposit to the title company. That needs to happen within three business days of acceptance. They’re going to cash the check you give them – it can be either personal or cashier’s check; you can also wire funds if that’s more convenient to you – and they’ll hold that there. At the end of the purchase, it’ll be credited towards your down payment and closing cost. If for some reason you can’t, it will be refunded to you.
And the third thing we’re going to be doing is taking a look at the condition of the property. We’re going to order inspections of the property, and we’ll also receive disclosures from both the title company and the sellers about what they know about the condition and features and history of the property, and we’ll just make sure that there are no surprises or red flags – and if there are, we may request repairs or a dollar credit from the seller to do repairs to get that done.
These three processes will be moving forward over the course of between two and four weeks. We generally need at least a couple weeks to close a purchase with a mortgage loan involved. Frequently it takes three or four weeks. Usually, no more than that, unless you’re doing down payment assistance or have some other special circumstances.
We’ll shoot a series of videos going into each week one at a time in more depth and each specific topic in more detail, just in case that’s helpful. But just generally speaking, to give a quick overview, in that first week, you’re going to get your deposit to the title company, you’re going to meet the lender, and you’re going to order the inspections. Usually, it’ll be during the second week when the inspections will take place. We’ll review those inspection reports. We’ll by then have the disclosures from the settlement and the title company; we’ll look at those as well.
At that point, we really should have a good sense if this is still a property you want to buy, especially since around that time we’ll also get the appraisal report back and verify the value. And assuming that we can manage everything we know at that point about value and condition and make any renegotiations on price or terms if need be to compensate for that, from there on out it’s really just a process of getting your loan finally approved by the lender. They’ll send documents over to the title company. You will go to the title company to sign those. They’ll go back to the lender for them to review, and then you’ll bring in the remainder of your down payment closing cost money. The lender will wire your mortgage loan to the title company. Once they have everything in hand, they’ll release that to the county recorder. Once the county recorder gets it done and we have confirmation of that, that’s when you’re the legal owner; that’s when you can get the keys to the property and move in.
So I know that sounded like a lot, and there’s a lot of little steps, but we’re going to break this down to you in very simple terms, week by week, so you have a good overview. Thanks for your time, and if you have any questions, feel free to call, text, or email. We’ll be happy to answer them.