What happens when
you sign an accepted offer on your property? Open
escrow and then what?
 Opening escrow
with agreed upon servicer in your acceptance contract.
Call a reputable escrow company
and ask the officer to open escrow and give you an escrow number. You will be asked for the following information:
 Address of the property.
Who the buyer is.
Who the seller is.
Respective agents
names and details.
A copy of the
signed accepted offer or contract (Residential Purchase
Agreement and Joint Escrow Instructions FORM RPA-11).
Deposit of consideration or earnest moneys in
escrow should be completed
within 3 days of acceptance.
If home warranty is requested, the name of the
company providing the
warranty should be given to escrow.
Some escrows will also request from you the
name of company to perform
the natural hazard disclosure companies.
Order a termite
inspection from a reputable company pending escrow or the agreed upon servicers in the
contract.
Normally the termite report
is required to be paid for by the seller.
Seller must give to
Buyer all disclosures on the seller’s property within 3 days or in accordance with
FORM RPA-11.
Buyer must
complete home inspection (as encouraged and signed as part of the buyers advisory)
attached to FORM RPA-11 and in writing request repairs or as spelled out by the FORM
RPA-11.
Remember,
an offer is made on a property on its “as is” condition… all
spelled
out in the RPA-11.
Seller must
respond to these repair requests by the buyer as per FORM RPA-11.
Very
often it may be a good idea to make sure a home has a clear or unclouded title by
requesting a preliminary title search be completed soon after acceptance of the offer and
escrow is open.
If roof
certification is requested by the buyer and approved by the seller in FORM RPA-11, the
Seller must comply and arrange the inspection through a recognized contractor. Repairs may be negotiable.
A walk-thru
inspection should be scheduled and completed by the buyer and his agent approximately 3
days before closing. The purpose of this
inspection of the property is twofold:
 To make certain the property
is in the same condition as it was at the time
the offer was
written.
To verify that all repairs requested by the
buyer have been completed.
The main papers
that must be signed in addition to all that is requested by the escrow office will be:
Buyer to sign Loan Documents.
Seller to sign the Transfer of Deed.
The term CLOSING
on your new property or Sellers Property refers to the combination of Funding and
Recording.
When the loan
documents are signed, unless certain requirements or conditions as required by the lender
have not yet been complied with, the loan can fund (or disbursements made by the escrow
officer) once the documents are send back to the lender.
The next day the documents are sent to the County Recorders Office for
recording of the transaction and the house at this time is considered to be SOLD. Keys may be given to new buyer.
Kent
Sez: “Closing on a transaction of residential sale in 30 – 45 days is similar to
delivering a baby after a 9 month term. Who
knows the exact day the baby will arrive? This
happens because in escrow there are many fingers in the pie or a lot of entities that make
the transaction complete.”
AV
Homeconsultants hopes that
some of this information will be helpful whether you use an agent or not. It is very important that reliable servicers are
used, however, and this is where a seasoned agent/consultant can be worth more than his
fees. This is due to the reliable number of
servicers on his team.
If you have any further questions, don't
hestitate to contact us. We would be
happy to help in any way that we can. |
