my offer was accepted...now what?

Was your offer FINALLY accepted on your dream home? And now you’re thinking “what comes next?!”

In this blog post, I’m going to walk you through the process of going from accepted offer to closing!

Ok here are the steps that come immediately after offer acceptance…

Turn in your Earnest Money

The amount of earnest money due is written in your contract, and your realtor can tell you who to make the check out to and where it needs to go. In Indiana, if it is $1,000 or less you can write a personal check. If it is anything more, it needs to be a money order or cashier’s check. And you have 3 days to get this turned in.

Schedule your Inspection

Unless you waived the inspection in order to get your offer accepted (which I talk about in my previous blog titled “3 Tips to Win in a Bidding War”…so if you haven’t checked that out yet, go back and watch that one!), you will have a certain amount of time to get your inspection complete. You’ll hire a 3rd party inspection company to come out and tell you about any major defects on the property. If you’re moving to LaPorte County, you’ll need an additional well & septic inspection that is required by the county prior to closing. If there are major defects, you may want to ask the seller to make the repairs or ask for a credit toward your closing costs. I’m going to talk about the inspection in detail in my next blog, so check back next week for more info there.

But, After this round of negotiations, you’ll move onto step 3 which is…

The appraisal

A critical part in the process, the appraisal determines the value of the home for the lender’s purposes. We want the house to appraise for at or above purchase price. If it does not, either you, as the buyer, have to come to the closing table with more cash to cover the difference, the seller has to come down in purchase price, or a combination of the two. This is where expert negotiation skills on your realtor’s end are critical.

Last but certainly not least, is...

The closing

The Closing takes place at the title company. If the amount that you owe for your downpayment and closing costs is less than $10,000, you can bring a money order. If it’s over $10,000 you will wire it ahead of time to the title company. The closing is a day for celebration! Everyone is excited because the seller is getting paid their proceeds and you, the buyer, are finally getting your home. It’s the BEST part of the process!!

Now you know what comes next after your offer is accepted up until closing, BUT I want to go back and spend some time on the Inspection process and what you want to look for during this important step.

Look out for next week's blog, where I’ll talk through the top 5 things to look for in your home inspection.

As always, if you have any questions on the buying (or selling!) process, don’t hesitate to reach out!