Many people wonder what real estate brokers do and how the home buying and selling process works. This is a great transaction map for buyers and sellers to help you see all the twists and turns in the buying and selling process.
On the buyer side one of the most important boxes to check off is early loan approval. Aside from not wanting any last-minute surprises, in our competitive Seattle market it is critical to be pre-approved. You may need to put an offer on a home a day after touring and you want that pre-approval letter to go with the offer. A few of the lenders I work with will also underwrite on a predetermined address, which is even more powerful.
The seller needs to make sure they have clear title. One common occurrence is the situation of having a wrong or even old name on the title. This can happen for many reasons but it should be cleared up at the beginning by having your real estate broker pul preliminary title.
I will work-up a comparative market analysis of the neighborhood which will reveal trends in the marketplace, average price sold per square foot, days on the market, and what escalated or sat on the market for a long period of time. In today’s market, a properly priced listing should sell within a week in most locations around the Seattle core. Overpriced listings can stay on the market a long time and can be perceived as having something wrong with them.
If the home is being purchased with a mortgage, the mortgage company (or the bank) will send out an appraiser to determine if the home is worth the amount offered. Of course we hope the figure comes in at the sold amount, but if it doesn’t, there may need to be some negotiation.
Once an offer has been accepted there will be timelines as dictated in the offer. Some competitive offers may limit the number of contingencies, but to protect a buyer there is usually at least the inspection, neighborhood review, and title contingencies. There is a standard number of days written into the contract but these can be overridden by writing in the number of days into the space.
Please let me know if you have any questions or comments!
