Seller accepted your Contract...now what?

After negotiating your contract, the seller FINALLY accepted! Your future home is FINALLY under contract or as realtors call it, the contract is ratified.  Be sure to clarify the RATIFY DATE.  All contingencies, deadlines, closing dates, etc. will correspond based on this ratification date.  So now what?

1. Coordinate Inspections - As part of your contract, you should build in a home inspection contingency.  This means you hire a licensed home inspector to go through the entire home and find any potential problems.  Unless you agree to take the home as-is, you can take any of the inspector's finding to negotiate price subsidies.

2. Coordinate financing - Before you made an offer, you probably already spoke to a bank or mortgage banker about getting a mortgage.  Now is the time to let your lender know your timeline, deliver financial due diligence items for the bank to review, and lock in on a mortgage rate.  Your lender is your right hand man, or woman.  You want to be very truthful with your lender and let them know of any hurdles they may encounter eg: job loss, judgements, other financial obligations.

3. Review HOA or Condo Documentation - The seller is required to deliver these docs at least 15 days prior to closing.  This is the buyer's opportunity to see if the home is under the HOA or condo association's  compliance.  If there is something amiss after reviewing these docs, the buyer may have an opportunity to cancel the contract under certain conditions.