Next Steps After Accepting an Offer On Your Home

 

What’s In This Article

  What do you do next after accepting an offer on your home from a buyer? Watch this video below to find out exactly what you will need to focus on next and get closer to actually closing on your house. Or read the full transcript just below the video.   I want to walk you through what happens after you accept an offer from a buyer. The first thing is you should take some time to celebrate, after all this is a major milestone.

picture of people celebrating selling a house

You are a lot closer to closing on your house and saving thousands of dollars in commission. Which is what will happen when you list with us, the best flat fee MLS company! But after you celebrate, you need to get back to work on the sale of your home.

Good advice for being in escrow

  Before I get into how this process plays out from here, I want to take a minute and give you some advice. At this point, if you have not done so already, you should probably get in touch with a real estate attorney and decide which one you want to work with.

picture of a flat fee mls real estate attorney

Because you are selling your house FSBO, you don’t have an agent working closely with you to help guide you through the process. An attorney is needed to perform the closing on your house anyway and pulling them into your situation now, could help prevent any issues with the sale of your home while in escrow. Thats what you are in now that you have accepted an offer on your home. Escrow.

picture of escrow after selling your house

And being in escrow is official when two things happen.

1) Both the buyers and you have signed a contract. 2) You receive the deposit check from the buyers.

gif of being in escrow

What to do with the deposit check?

  Whatever deposit amount you negotiated into the contract will need to be deposited in a special account. Typically, the buyers will make this check out to the listing agents brokerage and they will deposit it into their clients escrow account. However, because you are selling for sale by owner, you have two options on how to handle the deposit check.

1) Use the buyers agent broker’s escrow account. 2) Use your attorneys escrow account.

This is where it is best to check with your attorney for how they are comfortable with you doing this. The check is going to need to be made out to the correct account you decide to use. You should not have it made out directly to you. Because, this could cause legal trouble if you are holding deposit funds of the buyer. Again, this is why it’s a good idea to check in with your attorney that you will use to close your house. Whatever account you decide to use, by law the funds can not be released until closing or if the deal falls apart and both the buyers and the sellers sign off on the release of the funds.

The clock starts on your contracts timelines

  Now, at this point everything is official and the clock starts ticking on all the dates in your contract.

picture of ticking clock after selling a house

The date the signatures were put on the contract, is date you will use to figure out some of your timelines. For example, if you have an attorney review period of 3 days, then you have 3 days from the date you signed the contract. The same goes for the inspection contingency. If you put 10 or 14 days, this is from the date you signed the contract. You need to actually review the contract and read it carefully to understand.

picture of woman reading a real estate contract

For example, look to see if the contract says business days or calendar days because that makes a difference to your timelines. Next, you are going to want to maintain an open line of communication with your buyers agent or the buyers directly if they don’t have an agent. Make sure they are working on their responsibilities to meet these timelines. And if the dates are not going to be met, you will need to work with them to get an extension in writing and signed. Or decide on potentially canceling the contract and finding another buyer. There you have it. These are the next steps to follow once you have accepted a contract to sell your house. If you haven’t done so already, I suggest you watch my videos. The Home Sellers Guide to the HOME INSPECTION and The Home Sellers Guide to the MORTGAGE CONTINGENCY

picture of mortgage contingency thumbnail

So you know what to prepare for with during both of these contingencies. Because if they are in your contract, they are coming up quickly. As always, thank you for watching my video, I hope this makes getting your house to the closing table a little more clear and easier for you. And if you are watching this and still have not purchased one of my flat fee MLS listing plans. Head over to my purchase page and get started on selling your house on the Realtors MLS without paying a listing agents commission.  

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