Homes for sale Kennebunkport

Hurray, we have our home UNDER CONTRACT! Now we just sit back and wait until the day we all meet to close the deal. Right? Well, believe it or not, getting your home under contract may be the easy side of selling it. For most Sellers and Buyers, the real work is about to begin.

FINANCING: Get on with it! Your contract probably says you need to apply for your financing almost immediately. Since getting a financial commitment takes the longest, it’s a great idea anyway. Since we know you were smart and got yourself pre-approved prior to looking for a home, your financial agent can move quickly to order a title review and an appraisal for your new home. In an active market these items take quite a bit of time so do not hesitate in contacting your financial agent that you found the right home so the application and other paperwork can get started.

INSPECTIONS: Buyers should walk into the inspection process knowing that the house they are buying is not going to be perfect. There are items wrong or in disrepair with just about every home. You and your inspectors should be looking for major items like rotted sills, the roof leaking, safety related issues, and whether or not the furnace last until next week. Always attend your inspections, if you can, and ask a lot of questions about the house. The inspectors are ready to help you understand how your new home will work not just what is bad or good about the house.

INSPECTIONS: If you have been reading these monthly articles, you know that we previously suggested that you do some home inspections prior to listing your home to catch repair items and fix them before Buyers even see your home. This is a good idea since home inspections accounts for a lot of Buyers backing out of contracts. If you have completed some inspections, you can feel pretty confident that the Buyer’s inspector should not catch anything major that you don’t already know about.

Now, if you haven’t done those pre-listing inspections, it’s now time to face the Buyers inspectors like the General Building inspector who may also do Radon Testing, Water Testing, a Pest Inspection and other tests and inspections. You can look forward to having your lawn dug up to inspect your Septic System if you are not on a sewer system where you live.

Now, grab a chair and watch it happen. Please try not to be offended that these inspectors seem to be writing lots in their notes. The truth is that inspectors tell Buyers both what is actually in your home as well as what is good and not so good about your home.

Whether you are a buyer or seller, the results of inspections and the inevitable questions around who will pay to repair or replace something found during the inspections comes up.

SELLERS…remember, if this deal falls through, you start marketing your property all over again unless you were lucky enough to have a back-up contract on your home just in case the first one doesn’t work.

BUYERS…remember, if this deal falls through, you start looking again and will still have to go through this with every property you want to buy.

The objective of this buyer and seller soul-searching is for everyone to try to act reasonable and negotiate to a mutually agreeable conclusion on issues found. Try not to dig your heals in when asking for something. Try to give a little too.

The Seller is responsible for preparing the deed. Your agent will ask you who you would like to prepare it. It may be easier to just have the Closing Agency prepare it.
Gather up all your utility account numbers for the new owners. This will help insure that your accounts are closed out properly.
Don’t forget to bring picture IDs to the closing to verify that you are who you say you are.
Buyers: Don’t forget to bring your checkbook with you. Most times you will need to buy the remaining heating fuel and other personal property you wanted and not already in the contract. This is usually done with a personal check.
Buyers: When told how much money needs to be brought to the closing, PLEASE REMEMBER…Your check needs to be in the form of “Cleared Funds” like a Bank Check. Closing Agents will NOT accept a personal check.
Sellers: Bring any remaining keys and your garage door openers with you to the closing.
Sellers: If you have a copy of your tax bill, please bring it along to the closing.

The big day has finally come. You’ve done the final walkthrough, negotiated all the issues to everyone’s satisfaction and your agent has told you when and where to show up for the closing. Put a smile on your face and get over there. You are NOW READY TO CLOSE!

Home Sold