- When you buy a home, your real estate agent is usually FREE to you!
- How do I actually write an offer to buy a home?
- Most Arizona home buyers can easily cancel their purchase contract during the Inspection Period
- Get Pre-Approved for a Mortgage Loan
- That 80-inch flat screen television MIGHT come with the home
- Use an Arizona loan officer
- During the Inspection Period you can usually cancel the contract on a home being sold “As Is”
- What is an acceptable amount of earnest money in Arizona?
- Know the mechanics of negotiating a contract before you start
- If your contract has a Loan Contingency…
- Be sure and include the HOA Addendum
- During the Inspection Period you can cancel the contract if…
- Don’t worry, real estate agents don’t get any money from the loan officers they recommend
- The size of your down payment is largely a financing issue
- Your down payment is different than your earnest money
- Always do a final walkthrough
[I wrote this several years ago. Let me know if you would like me to update it. – John]
#1. When you buy a home, your real estate agent is usually FREE to you!
Your real estate agent will very likely be paid by the seller’s real estate agent.
This is how it works. In the local Multiple Listing Service (MLS) the seller’s agent will promise to pay some amount – usually a percentage of the sales price – to any other member of the MLS who represents the person who buys the client’s home.
This works great for the home seller because now tens of thousands of real estate agents are working to sell the house.
Your real estate agent looks out for you, not the seller
Don’t worry, even though your agent is usually paid by the seller’s agent, under Arizona law your real estate agent is legally obligated to represent your best interests, not the seller’s best interests.
Just remember, your real estate agent works for you even though your real estate agent is usually free to you.
#2. How do I actually write an offer to buy a home?
Arizona Home Purchase Contract Forms
Theoretically, you could write an offer on a restaurant napkin but nearly all Arizona home purchase offers are written on pre-made contract forms.
Many different contract forms are used to buy residential real estate in Arizona. For example, nearly every Arizona home builder has its own specially written contract. A builder will require home buyers, like you, to use their contract.
Although every home builder has a different contract, all home builder contracts have one thing in common – they are written to greatly favor the home seller (the builder) over the home buyer (you).
On the other hand, the vast majority of residential resale (not new) home sales in Arizona are written on the purchase contract form created by the Arizona Association of Realtors.
Arizona Realtors represent both home buyers and home sellers about equally so the Association’s 10-page contract form is very even-handed between the interests of Arizona home sellers and Arizona home buyers.
Purchase Offer vs. Purchase Contract
When you fill out a contract form, it’s just an offer from you to buy the home with the stated price and terms. If the seller signs your offer, then your offer becomes a binding contract agreed to by both you and the seller.
Here is a sample copy of an old version of the Arizona Association of Realtors’ Purchase Contract.
When you first meet with your real estate agent – and before you tour homes together – I strongly suggest that you set aside at least a half hour to have your real estate agent go over the purchase contract form with you. I know it’s incredibly boring but becoming familiar with the contract form and the home buying process will greatly reduce the odds you’ll have any unpleasant or expensive surprises later on in the process.
#3. Most Arizona home buyers can easily cancel their purchase contract during the Inspection Period
Inspection Period
The Inspection Period is typically 10 calendar days. The Inspection Period begins the day the purchase contract is completed by being signed by both you and the seller.
Inspections are extremely important
It is extremely important for you to make thorough inspections of the property during the Inspection Period. If you then decide to cancel the contract – and you want to receive a full refund of your earnest money – you must cancel the contract before the Inspection Period ends. An hour late is too late.
During the Inspection Period you should also investigate anything related to the home that is important to you such as the schools or future development plans for the area.
Free professional help to manage your Inspection Period
A top reason for hiring an Arizona real estate agent is to have a professional advise you on your deadlines and what you should do during your Inspection Period. And remember, home buyers usually pay nothing to have a professional real estate agent work for them.
Next to negotiating the price and terms of the contract with the seller, the Inspection Period is the most important, most complex and most stressful part of the home buying process in Arizona. Mismanaging your opportunities to cancel can be disastrous. It’s especially critical to meet all the deadlines in your contract.
#4. Get Pre-Approved for a Mortgage Loan
Sure, you can make your offer stronger by offering more money but here’s an easy way to make your offer stronger that doesn’t cost you any money.
If you can show a seller that you will have little trouble borrowing the money needed to pay for their home, then the seller is more likely to accept your offer.
If, on the other hand, it’s apparent you just started to look for a loan, the seller will be less inclined to accept your offer.
You may be a super reliable person but the seller doesn’t know you from Adam. The sellers will be worried that if they accept your offer that you may not be able to get a mortgage loan and will “flake out” later on. Sellers tend to want a higher price from unprepared buyers since they tend to flake out more often than pre-approved, serious buyers.
#5. That 80-inch flat screen television MIGHT come with the home
What “conveys” with the home?
The question really is, “What is considered to be part of the house – like a door – and what is considered to be part of the seller’s personal property – like a chair?” The personal property of the seller, like clothes and furniture are, of course, not part of the house and are not included in the sale.
An old rule of thumb that often works says that if an item is attached to the home (for example, with a nail or a screw) then the item is likely to be considered to be part of the house.
A family picture sitting on a shelf or just hanging on a nail is the personal property of the seller. (The picture is not nailed to the wall, it’s just hanging on a nail. Yeah, this is confusing for everyone, including the seller.)
An 80-inch flat screen TV that is actually mounted to a wall might be considered to be part of the home like any door that is screwed to a wall. If that same TV were just sitting on a shelf or just hanging on a nail, it would definitely be considered to be the seller’s personal property just like all the other furniture.
Confusing, ain’t it! We have lots of room for disagreements and there are a LOT of such disagreements.
To avoid drama later, it’s always best to spell it out in your very first offer exactly what you want to be included in the sale of the house.
This is especially true for items that often cause disputes. For example, wall-mounted TVs. The buyer says, “The TV is attached to the wall so it’s part of the house” but the seller says, “No, it’s not, the TV wall mount is attached to the wall and is part of the house but the TV itself is just sitting on the wall mount so the TV doesn’t convey with the home”).
Other items that often cause disputes are garage cabinets, bookshelves and wall units. Are they attached to the wall like a door or just sitting on the floor like a chair?
Refrigerator, washer and dryer are NOT part of the home
Typically, the refrigerator, clothes washer and clothes dryer are considered to be the seller’s personal property and will NOT convey with the home unless the contract specifically states those items are in fact included in the sale.
Be sure and include any such personal property items you want in your very first offer. The seller may not, of course, agree to include those items in the sale – it’s all part of the negotiations – but if you don’t ask, you won’t get them.
In our example, I would consider the 80-inch wall-mounted TV to be part of the home and I think it should convey with the home, unless the contract says otherwise. However, many other real estate agents firmly believe that wall-mounted TVs are never part of a house.
The drama begins when the seller doesn’t agree with the buyer, which is very common, and the sellers take the 80-inch wall-mounted TV when they move out. That’s why it’s best to specifically mention the TV in your very first offer so there is no confusion later on about whether it is included in the sale or not.
Items that ARE part of the home
Here is a list of items that ARE, by default, included in the sale of a home when using the “Residential Resale Real Estate Purchase Contract” (2011) from the Arizona Association of Realtors. (The buyer and seller can, of course, agree in the written contract to exclude any of these items from the sale so the seller can keep them.)
- Free-standing range/oven
- Ceiling fans
- Attached floor coverings
- Window and door screens, sun screens
- Garage door openers and controls
- Outdoor landscaping, fountains, and lighting
- Pellet, wood-burning or gas-log stoves
- Storage sheds
- Light fixtures
- Towel, curtain and drapery rods
- Flush-mounted speakers
- Storm windows and doors
- Attached media antennas/satellite dishes
- Attached fireplace equipment
- Timers
- Draperies and other window coverings
- Shutters and awnings
- Water-misting systems
- Mailbox
- Central Vacuum, hose, and attachments
- Built-in appliances
If owned by the seller, the following items also are included in the sale:
- Pool and spa equipment (including any mechanical or other cleaning systems)
- Security and/or fire systems and/or alarms
- Water softeners
- Water purification systems
You can see the full list of items on Lines 30-44 of this old version (2011) of the Arizona Purchase Contract.
These are the items that by default were automatically included in the sale of the home.
For other items to be included in the sale, such as a piece of furniture or free-standing garage cabinets, the contract must specifically state they are included in the sale.
Disputes over items that the buyer thought were included in the sale and the seller thought were not included in the sale usually pop up right before closing when everyone is already frazzled. For a smoother home purchase, it’s best to specifically mention in the contract any items you think may confuse the seller.
Beware! If the MLS listing says the refrigerator, for example, will convey with the home but at the end of the day the refrigerator is NOT listed in your purchase contract as being included in the sale of the home, then the refrigerator is NOT included in the sale of the home.
It doesn’t matter what the MLS listing says. It only matters what the contract says.
The opposite example helps show the logic.
If the MLS listing says the refrigerator will NOT convey with the home but at the end of the day the refrigerator is indeed listed in your purchase contract as being included in the sale of the home, then the refrigerator is included in the sale of the home.
It doesn’t matter what the MLS listing says. It only matters what the contract says.
#6. Use an Arizona loan officer
Your lender is a key part of your team
A lender who is not familiar with Arizona paperwork and business customs can make your home purchase a nightmare. If they really messed up, they could even put you in jeopardy of losing your earnest money. To minimize your potential hassles, please use an Arizona loan officer.
In Arizona we do things differently than in other states. For example, we use a special “Pre-Qualification Form” which isn’t used in any other state. Here is an old (2013) version of a Pre-Qualification Form.
“We Don’t Do That Form”
In Arizona, our contract usually requires that a Pre-Qualification Form be attached to your offer so the seller can see where you are in the process of getting a loan. This form is a lot more detailed than a “Pre-Qual letter.”
Incredibly, I once had an out-of-state lender refuse to provide an Arizona form because they weren’t familiar with it! This was a huge problem because the contract said my buyer would provide this form to the seller.
After a LOT of phone calls, the buyer was able to talk the out-of-state lender into providing the one-page form.
If we hadn’t gotten the form from the out-of-state lender, it would have really ticked off the home seller because we would have needed to amend the contract to say the form would NOT be provided. That would have unnecessarily used up a lot of goodwill with the seller. That means the seller would have been less likely to cut the buyer any slack if later on during the transaction the buyer wanted the seller to be flexible about something else. And that could end up costing the buyer money.
Getting an “Arizona Pre-Qualification Form” from an Arizona loan officer is nearly effortless.
I would be happy to send you names of Arizona loan officers I trust. And if a loan officer knows you’re a client of your real estate agent, the loan officer is more likely to go the extra mile for you, otherwise, they know your real estate agent will stop recommending them.
#7. During the Inspection Period you can usually cancel the contract on a home being sold “As Is”
“As Is” is seller shorthand for, “Don’t ask me to fix anything.”
Just because a home is being sold “as is” doesn’t mean you don’t have an Inspection Period. Depending on how the contract is written, you can usually still cancel a contract during the Inspection Period even if the home is being sold “as is.”
Listing a home “as is” is just the seller telling potential buyers that the seller does not intend to make any repairs to the property.
Nevertheless, if your purchase contract contains an Inspection Period – and most do – then you will likely have an opportunity to inspect the property and you will be able to cancel the contract and get a full refund of your earnest money if you don’t like what you find.
This Tip is, of course, just a thumbnail of one aspect of the super complex inspection and due diligence processes seen in most Arizona home purchases.
#8. What is an acceptable amount of earnest money in Arizona?
Most Arizona home sellers will be satisfied with an earnest money amount equal to around 1% of the purchase price
In general, the larger the amount of earnest money, the more serious the seller will consider your offer. That is, the more your earnest money, the more attractive your offer.
Different areas of the country have different earnest money traditions. For Arizona residential resale real estate, I have found that an earnest money amount equivalent to around 1% of the price you are offering for the home is usually acceptable to sellers. (It’s more for luxury homes.)
In my opinion, an unusually large amount of earnest money strengthens your offer a little bit and an unusually small amount of earnest money weakens your offer a lot.
Don’t low ball the earnest money
Putting down a small amount of earnest money will often raise red flags in the mind of the seller.
- The seller may think you aren’t very serious about buying the house and become less flexible in price negotiations.
- The seller may look at everything in your offer suspiciously, if you come in with a suspiciously low amount of earnest money.
- The seller may worry that you are cash poor and won’t be able to really buy the home.
Putting down an appropriate amount of earnest money is usually a no cost way to strengthen your offer.
What is earnest money?
Earnest money is often a personal check from you, the buyer, made out to the escrow company.
Before I submit your offer to the seller, you’ll give your real estate agent the earnest money check (made out to the escrow company) to hold as stated in your offer.
If it turns out an agreement cannot be reached with the seller, you’ll tell your agent to destroy the earnest money check.
If, however, an agreement is reached with the seller, your agent will deliver your earnest money check along with the accepted written offer – now a “contract” or “agreement” – to the escrow company to “open escrow.”
The escrow company will usually “cash” your earnest money check within 24 hours and deposit the money into the new escrow account made for the sale.
Another way to deposit the earnest money which is becoming more popular is to skip the paper check altogether and simply write into the offer/contract that the buyer will deposit the earnest money into escrow within X days (often 3 or 4) of contract acceptance. After a written agreement is reached between the buyer and the seller, the buyer’s agent will take the signed, accepted contract (without an earnest money check) to the title company to open escrow. The escrow officer will open escrow and call the buyer with the wiring instructions so the buyer can, as per the contract, have their bank wire the earnest money directly into the escrow account.
At the close of escrow, buyers usually want their earnest money to go toward the purchase of the home.
Can the buyer lose the earnest money?
Yes, the buyer can lose their earnest money if the buyer breaches the contract.
I, however, have never had a buyer client lose their earnest money. Similarly, I’ve never had a seller client keep a buyer’s earnest money. In my opinion, something has to go terribly wrong for the buyer to lose their earnest money.
An important reason to hire a real estate agent is to help ensure that you don’t accidentally screw up and lose your earnest money.
#9. Know the mechanics of negotiating a contract before you start
You just made a written offer to buy the seller’s house
The seller may;
- Accept your offer
- Ignore your offer and not respond at all
- Reject your offer outright in writing
- Make a counter offer to your offer
Counter Offers
The original offer you made was likely over ten pages long. The counter offer is usually only one page long. Here is an old version of a Counter Offer form.
The seller’s counter offer will only change those things in your offer that the seller doesn’t agree to.
The sales price is the most common item the seller will attempt to change with a counter offer. The seller, for example, may accept everything in your offer except the price so the seller will make a counter offer which only increases the sales price.
If you accept that price and sign the seller’s counter offer, then the original multi-page offer plus the one-page counter offer together become the binding contract.
Counter Offer #2
If you don’t like the seller’s counter offer, you can make an additional counter offer of your own (Counter Offer #2) to make changes to the seller’s Counter Offer #1.
And so on with additional counter offers back and forth until an agreement is reached or it becomes clear an agreement cannot be reached and negotiations are abandoned.
If you end up with several counter offers, it can become VERY confusing. Take the time to make sure you understand what you are agreeing to before you sign any Counter Offers!
Other items in Counter Offers
Although just about anything can be seen in a counter offer, a few items are often seen;
- Change price
- Include or exclude items from the sale (“Wall-mounted TV in family room is not included in sale”)
- Change the close of escrow date
#10. If your contract has a Loan Contingency…
If your contract has a Loan Contingency, you can usually cancel the purchase contract and get all your earnest money back if it turns out you can’t get the loan.
Loan Contingency
Unless you are paying all cash for a home, you should always make your offers contingent upon you being able to borrow the money needed to pay the seller for the home. This is the “Loan Contingency,” also called a “Financing Contingency.”
If a seller accepts your offer but it turns out later on you can’t, in fact, get the mortgage loan you described in your offer, then you can usually cancel the contract and receive a full refund of your earnest money.
Appraisal Contingency
In addition, your lender is going to require you to pay for an appraisal of the home. If the lender’s appraiser says the home is worth less than the price written in the contract, then you can usually cancel the contract and get your earnest money back as stated in your contract.
A common result, however, is that the seller will lower the price so the buyer won’t cancel the contract.
Canceling the Contract
Be aware, however, that when you cancel a contract you will not be reimbursed for any of the costs you paid for inspections or appraisals.
Don’t miss the deadlines for canceling a contract when a loan contingency or an appraisal contingency is triggered, otherwise you may very well lose your earnest money.
Not having the Down Payment money at closing is NOT a contingency
The down payment amount you promised in the contract is NOT part of the loan contingency.
If your contract says your down payment will be $X but when it comes time to close you don’t have all the down payment money promised, that means the sale won’t be able to close and you could lose all of your earnest money.
Don’t do anything stupid
If you lose your job and can no longer qualify for a loan, you probably won’t have a problem canceling the contract and getting all of your earnest money back.
If, however, you can no longer qualify for a loan because you yourself did something stupid so you couldn’t get the loan – like taking out a loan to buy a new car or putting a lot of new furniture on credit cards – then the seller may be able to keep your earnest money.
Depending on your personal credit situation and your loan, be very careful about buying anything big on credit before the close of escrow because a big purchase could lower your credit score. Your lender will pull your credit score again right before the close of escrow and a lower credit score then could possibly disqualify you from the loan your loan offficer just spent 3 weeks getting you approved for or, worst case scenario, disqualify you from getting a mortgage loan at all. It all depends on your personal credit situation and your loan. Talk to your loan officer.
#11. Be sure and include the HOA Addendum
When making an offer on a home located in a Homeowners Association (HOA), be sure and include the HOA Addendum with the offer.
How much is the monthly HOA fee?
Before the “H.O.A. Condominium/Planned Community Addendum” was created, some Arizona home buyers were shocked to find out after purchasing their homes that they had to pay much higher monthly HOA fees than they were led to believe.
The solution? The HOA Addendum to the purchase contract forces the seller to commit in writing to the full amount of all HOA fees so you, the buyer, know exactly what you’ll be paying.
Who pays the HOA Transfer Fee?
The HOA transfer fee and similar fees are one-time fees paid when a home is sold.
Some HOAs have exorbitant transfer fees (over $1,000) and when that happens the seller may push a lot harder than usual to get you, the buyer, to pay the fees.
In the HOA Addendum, you and seller agree in black and white to who will pay the transer fee – you, the seller or split between you and the seller.
To prevent any surprises later, your real estate agent should help you work out during the original contract negotiations an agreement with the seller on who will pay the HOA transfer and similar fees.
Here is an old sample copy of the HOA Addendum. The addendum was the fabulous idea of the Arizona Association of Realtors to help protect Arizona home buyers like you.
#12. During the Inspection Period you can cancel the contract if…
During the Inspection Period you can cancel the contract if you find problems but in many cases you won’t have to cancel because the seller will agree to fix the problems.
Inspection Period protects home buyers
The Inspection Period gives you, the Arizona home buyer, a fabulous opportunity to investigate an Arizona home thoroughly to see if it meets your expectations.
On the other hand, the Inspection Period is one of the most complex parts of buying a home in Arizona. Mismanaging your opportunities can be disastrous for you. Meeting all the deadlines in the contract is critical.
Don’t worry. If you hire a good real estate, your agent will help you manage your Inspection Period.
Buyer’s Inspection Notice
During the Inspection Period you, the buyer, can;
- Accept the home as-is
- Cancel the contract due to problems found during the inspections
- Give the seller the opportunity to correct problems you found during the inspections
- Do nothing, which means you, the buyer, accept the home as is. Don’t do that!
If you want to request some repairs, you will use the “Buyer’s Inspection Notice” form to notify the seller of your requested repairs. The “Buyer Inspection Notice” must be delivered to the seller within the Inspection Period which is typically ten (10) days from the time the final counter offer was signed by you and the seller.
Once the seller receives the “Buyer’s Inspection Notice” with your requested repairs, the seller then has five (5) days to respond.
Seller’s Response
The seller can;
- Agree to make all requested repairs.
- Agree to make some requested repairs.
- Refuse to make any repairs at all.
If, in the “Seller’s Response,” the seller doesn’t agree to make all repairs you requested, you can cancel the contract.
(Comment: Your list of requested repairs will include any major items that are deal-breakers for you but the list can also include less important items that you would like to try to get the seller to repair but that aren’t really deal-breakers for you. If the seller refuses to repair any of your deal-breaker items, you can choose to cancel the contract. If, however, the only items the seller refuses to repair are your less important, non-deal-breaker items, then you may want to continue with the purchase.)
You, the buyer, have five (5) days after receiving the “Seller’s Response” to decide whether to, essentially, take it or leave it.
Buyer’s Election
You, the buyer, can;
- “Take it” and agree to move forward with the purchase of the home with only the repairs the seller agreed to make.
- “Leave it” and cancel the contract altogether. This must be done within five (5) days of you receiving the “Seller’s Response”.
This post just gives you some of the bare bones, basic features of the Inspection Period mechanisms. Even these bare bones mechanisms don’t apply to all situations.
Here is an old sample Residential Buyer’s Inspection Notice and Seller’s Response (BINSR) form.
Again, the Inspection Period is one of the most complex and critical parts of buying a home in Arizona and your real estate agent will help guide you through your Inspection Period.
#13. Don’t worry, real estate agents don’t get any money from the loan officers they recommend
Real estate agents get no compensation from the loan officers, home inspectors or title companies they recommend to you.
Lenders don’t pay real estate agents anything
In fact, it is illegal for a loan officer (or home inspector, title company or appraiser) to provide a referral fee to a real estate agent.
All real estate agents ask their preferred loan officers to do is to provide great service to their clients. Having a great loan officer on your team will make the home buying process go a LOT more smoothly for you.
There is enough stress already in buying and moving into a home. You don’t want a lousy loan officer – and there are many – to unnecessarily add to your home buying stress by messing up your home loan.
In fact, an incompetent lender could theoretically cause you to lose your earnest money!
#14. The size of your down payment is largely a financing issue
The size of your down payment is largely a financing issue between you and your lender.
Talk to your lender
Your Arizona lender will tell you the minimum down payment for the loan program you’ve chosen but there could be advantages to putting more money down than the minimum.
More
Keep in mind that the larger your down payment, the more attractive your offer will be to the seller. That’s because the larger your down payment, the less likely you’ll have trouble getting financing and the more likely you’ll actually be able to buy the home from the seller.
Less
On the other hand, you may want to make the minimum down payment possible to save cash that you can put into improving and updating the home after you buy it.
You gotta have the promised down payment
Be careful that if you say in your offer that you will have $X down payment at closing, that you actually have $X at closing.
If you don’t have the promised down payment at closing and the home purchase falls through because of it, then the seller is likely to keep your earnest money. This is one scenario where it’s clear that you would be in breach of the contract and could lose your earnest money.
#15. Your down payment is different than your earnest money
Earnest Money
Earnest money is often a personal check from you, the buyer, for perhaps 1% of the purchase price, that you make out to a title company and that you give to your real estate agent to hold before your agent submits your offer to the seller. If your offer is accepted by the seller, your agent will deliver your earnest money check along with the accepted offer (now a “contract” or “agreement”) to the title company to “open escrow” and the title company will deposit your earnest money check immediately into your new escrow account.
Down Payment
Down payment is the amount of unborrowed money, the “cash” so to speak, that you will put into the escrow account to buy the home. For example, if you are getting a loan for 90% of the price of the home, then your down payment will be 10%.
The Earnest Money is usually applied toward the Down Payment at COE
Buyers usually want that at close of escrow their earnest money goes toward their down payment. In the example above where your 1% earnest money was put into your escrow account, that means before you can close escrow and take title to the home, you’ll have to put an additional 9% into your escrow account.
Typically, you would ask your personal bank to wire the 9% from your account directly into the escrow account. Your banks will change you a small fee for wiring your money into the escrow account. You’ll then have the total 10% down payment in the escrow account.
Your lender, of course, will have to wire the money you’re borrowing, the 90%, into the escrow account as well before you can close escrow and take title to the house.
Other Closing Costs
In addition, before the close of escrow, you will have to put into the escrow account money to cover the rest of your closing costs like the fees to pay your lender, the cost of the title insurance policy your lender will require you to buy, escrow fees and other smaller miscellaneous fees.
Closing costs usually run 2% to 3% but can run much higher, 5%+, depending on the up front costs of your mortgage. In the example above, you would wire your closing cost from your bank account into the escrow account at the same time as you wired your down payment into the escrow account. This total amount is called the “cash to close,” it’s the total amount you need to wire into the escrow account to buy the house.
#16. Always do a final walkthrough
“Substantially the Same Condition”
The walkthrough is another important protection for Arizona home buyers that is written into the “Residential Resale Real Estate Purchase Contract” of the Arizona Association of Realtors.
The walkthrough is done to verify that the home is in “substantially the same condition” as the day the contract was accepted. You will usually do the walkthrough a day or two before the close of escrow.
The walkthrough is needed because from time to time something will break in a home after the inspections have been completed. This is your opportunity to catch any new problems that may have developed, such as damage caused when the seller moved out.
More importantly, during the walkthrough you can verify whether the seller has completed the repairs the seller had previously agreed to make, if any.
Don’t skip the walkthrough. According to the contract, if you don’t do a walkthrough, you can’t later go after the seller for any problems that you could have discovered during a walkthrough.
New damage and uncompleted repairs
If you find some new damage or you find the seller has not completed all agreed upon repairs, things can get wild because the home is typically scheduled to close the next day!
Real estate agents and title companies have seen this happen before and they have techniques that can help resolve the problem so the sale can often close on time.
Congratulations! You now know more than some real estate agents!
That was the last tip! Thanks for reading them all.
John Wake
HomeSmart
480-600-0947
Disclaimer. Please note that this information is of a general nature and may not apply to your personal situation. These articles reflect only the opinion of the author, are not intended as definitive advice and you should not act upon them without seeking independent, personalized, professional counsel.