Part III – We got the deal! (Now what?)

The time clock (17 days) starts running!

Escrow opens. They get copies of all agreements, plus your check!

Multiple tracks run simultaneously.

• Your lender. Your lender will order the appraisal, and continue working on your file.  You may need to provide additional stuff to your lender. Because you’ve already gotten pre-approved BEFORE you made your offer (right?!), your lender is primarily focused on the property.

• Your due diligence. You will receive the disclosures from the seller, hire a home inspector (always go on the inspection yourself!), study the reports. You’ll make your request for repairs to the seller, who is free to accept none, some or all of your requests.

• Escrow. They’re busy! Some of the stuff they’re doing is getting “bene” statements from the seller’s lender(s), ordering title insurance, coordinating stuff with your lender, get docs out to both you and the seller, etc.

After you’ve completed all your inspections, resolved any negotiations with the seller concerning repairs to the property, gotten complete approval from your lender (they’ve approved you and the property), gotten any issues from escrow resolved, you now release ALL CONTINGENCIES. You’re married to the seller!

Close escrow! Woo hoo!

What really happens is this. The day before escrow closes, your loan(s) “funds”, ie, the lender wire transfers all the loan money into escrow. You get a cashiers check into escrow for the balance of all your down payment and closing costs – remember, you’ve already put a security deposit into escrow when escrow was first opened, so you’re just putting in any other additional bucks necessary.

The day escrow closes, escrow physically gets the Grant Deed and Deed of Trust(s) over to the County Recorders office in Ventura. They review the docs for legibility, and accept them for recording. Later in the morning, or early afternoon, you get the word that it’s a done deal – congratulations! Time to move!

Beware the “postpartum” blues!

You may find you’ve expended a ton of emotional energy in going through this whole process – thinking about buying a home, kicking the idea around, surfing the net and MLS for stuff, getting a little more serious, then talking to a lender, getting a little deeper, then choosing a Realtor and starting to do some serious looking.

But it really kicks in when you’ve got an accepted offer. Time flies! Those 17 days scream by – in addition to work and your “real” life, you’ve got to do all this “house buying” stuff. Tons of papers to review, consider, sign this and sign that. Then you move (hard and fast over the weekend). You go back to work exhausted Monday morning. At some point, it’ll all catch up, and you’ll think, “What in the world were we thinking”?!?

As I’ve said in numerous first time homebuyer seminars, you’ll believe the only thing holding your home together are the termites holding hands. That’s okay. It’s normal.

Or, like me, having just bought my first home with horribly high PITI ($600 a month), you’ll experience chest pains and say “I think I’m going to die”.

But the day will come when you’ll wake up some weekend morning to discover the sun is still shining, you’re on a first name basis with all the termites, your home is still standing, and life is pretty good!

Welcome home!