If you were lucky enough to sell your home, congratulations! Now let’s make sure it closes and closes smoothly! Here are some tips to help you through the process:
- Stay calm – Yes, it will be stressful, but this is a good stress. Embrace it and enjoy the fact you just sold your house – congratulations!
- Go through the inspections – Most sales include an inspection period for the buyer. During this time they will have an inspector go through your home with a fine tooth comb. It can be very frustrating as a seller to have a person rummaging through your house nitpicking it. Especially because you get comfortable living there and don’t necessarily care if an outlet doesn’t work anymore. However, most buyers end up wanting every little last thing fixed which can usually upset a seller so much that they blow the sale. Don’t start packing your boxes too early; make sure you get through this period first.
- Is the buyer getting a mortgage? Make darn sure you get a loan commitment from the buyer’s bank as soon as possible. The sooner you know the buyer’s lender is committed to giving them a loan, the more confident you should be that you’ll be making your move for real.
- Does the buyer have to be approved by your homeowners association? Make sure they apply for approval right away and that they receive all the documents and financials of the community. Florida law allows buyers a 3 day right of recession for resale properties from the time they receive the documents. So do not delay.
- Get your movers lined up right away. They can oftentimes be busy and you need to make sure you lock in a day that works for you before their schedule tightens up.
There are lots of ways to get out of a real estate deal for a buyer, so you as a seller want to make sure you lock them in and get all their contingencies removed as early as possible. The quicker you do that, the less stress you’ll have – knowing that if they back out of the sale later on, odds are in your favor of keeping their deposit. Good luck and enjoy your new home!
Gabe Mellein was voted a Top Real Estate Agent – Exceptional in Service and Overall Satisfaction by Gulfshore Life Magazine in 2012. He is the broker of Gulf Pointe Properties, Inc and has over 8 years experience in the SW Florida Real Estate Market. He is a member of The Naples Area Board of Realtors, Bonita Springs – Estero Association of Realtors, Realtor Association of Greater Fort Myers and the Beach, The Florida Association of Realtors, The National Association of Realtors, and is nationally certified in Feng Shui for Real Estate. Please contact Gabe at: 239.825.2234, Gabe@GulfPointeProperties.com or www.GulfPointeProperties.com
