When you know a home you really want is likely to have multiple offers, you can add an escalation clause to your offer. This means you will automatically “beat” any other offer by a certain amount, up to a certain maximum price. For example, you make an offer at $240,000 with an escalation clause that you will beat any other offer by $1,000 up to a max of $250,000. If no offer beats your $240,000, then you only pay $240,000.
If you find a home you love and it is already under contract, you can enter a backup offer. If the seller accepts your offer as a backup and the first sale fails, the seller automatically proceeds with you and your offer. Sales fall through all the time, so backup offers are actually a great idea if you love a home that is under contract. When your offer is in backup position, you are still free to continue shopping for and making offers on other homes. It’s a win-win!
This depends entirely on the type of loan you are using, and your lender is the expert to ask on this topic. In general, if a buyer is paying all of their own closing costs, they can expect between 2% and 3% of purchase price in closing costs.
Earnest money is deposited into an escrow account upon mutual acceptance of an offer. Keeping the earnest money is the seller’s only remedy if the buyer fails to close the deal without legal cause. The buyer can get the earnest money back if the deal fails due to unsatisfactory inspection results, low appraisal result, financing denied by lender, the seller backing out, or other scenarios that are not the fault of the buyer. If the buyer simply gets cold feet late in the purchase process and backs out, the seller has the right to contend for the earnest money. When the sale goes smoothly, the earnest money acts as an “early down payment” and goes straight toward the buyer’s down payment and closing costs. For example, if you are putting $15,000 down, and you deposited $3,000 earnest money, you would need to bring the remaining $12,000 at closing (plus any closing costs).
Usually we can notify the seller and schedule a convenient time to visit the property again. Immediately before the closing, we will schedule a final walk-through of your new home.
Yes, we can work with most builders and get you the information you need to make a decision. On your first visit with the builder, we will accompany you. In addition to our normal services, we will act as a mediator between you and the builder to make sure you get the home and finishes you are promised.
We will keep you informed of all homes listed in the local Multiple Listing Service. We want to help you find the right home, which means we need to stay aware of every home that’s available in the market.
Homeowners trying to sell their home without agent representation are usually doing so in the hopes of saving the commission. If you see a FSBO you like, let us contact the owner for you and make an appointment. Most times the homeowner will work with us even though their home is not listed, since we are introducing a potential buyer to their property.
Typically the buyers do not have to pay any agent commissions. The seller is normally responsible for paying the commission for both agents.