Purchase Offer Accepted: Congratulations!
You made an offer to buy a house and your realtor just called you with the great news that your offer has been accepted and you are now officially in contract.
The next step in the home buying process involves making out in earnest money check to the title/escrow company for the amount specified on your purchase agreement. You will want to get a copy of that check, both the front and back of it along with a copy of the bank statement from which that money is coming from. This is all information that will be required by your mortgage lender.
Your mortgage lender will get get a copy of the purchase contract signed by all parties along with your earnest money check information. More than likely, they’ll ask ask you to update your:
- pay stubs for the most recent 30 day consecutive period
- most recent bank statements for the last two months
- credit card form for the appraisal order
- any other financial documentation that might be required for mortgage loan financing.
To be sure your purchase mortgage loan is handled in the most efficient manner possible, be sure to get any updated financial information to your mortgage lender within 24 business hours.
The mortgage lender will then begin working on your loan. This involves them rerunning your credit report if necessary, running final loan qualifying calculations as well as ordering the appraisal. It is at this time you can lock in your interest rate. If you’re looking at a 30 day escrow on your purchase contract you can lock your loan in for 30 days. If the purchase contract is longer than 30 days maybe upwards of 45 days, then you can lock on the 45 day interest rate lock.
Once you are in contract following is a list of things that you want to be sure to avoid during the home buying process:
Closely follow these home nine tips especially when you get your purchase offer accepted.
Do not change jobs or change jobs status.This goes without saying, but it’s important that there is no job changing or switching of job status for example going from being a W-2 employee to becoming self-employed or vice versa. Either one of these scenarios, can throw an unnecessary monkey wrench into your purchase loan transaction.
Do not make changes to your credit or use credit cards for any extra purchases. While you’re excited to buy a house, that doesn’t mean going out and buying furniture. At this stage you are not there yet. Best to wait till after the close of escrow to get furniture using financing. You also don’t want to be closing credit cards especially during the home buying process because that could negatively affect your credit rating which is used to qualify you for the home loan.
Do not switch mortgage lenders mid-process. Decide who your mortgage lender is going to be before your purchase offer is accepted. Switching lenders may process does two things: 1. Jeopardizes your close of escrow time frame and per diem interest penalties could apply. 2. Puts unnecessary strain on the new mortgage lender you select to perform extremely quickly. It’s just not a good habit because the financial risks to you are too high.
Do not move money around. Transferring money from different accounts especially that money is being used for asset verification purposes by your mortgage lender or being used for down payment purposes, will require paper trails on all money that is moved from one account to another. Moving money around during the transaction will more than likely cause more work for you when there’s other items to be concentrated on during the escrow process.
Do not go on vacation or plan to be out of town especially when you’re closing escrow in the next 30-45 days. Surprisingly enough, this happens pretty frequently. Plan ahead and determine when you could be in town and when you’re close of escrow will be. If you know in 30 days from now that you’re going to be out of town, make sure you let your agent and mortgage lender know immediately so they can plan a realistic loan signing time frame for you to meet your contractual real estate obligation.
Do not stress out. While buying a home can be a daunting task, your mortgage lender and real estate agent has fiduciary responsibility to watch out for you and keep you aware of important changes during the home buying process. The important dates for member that you’re going to be wanting to look out for are the following:
- Mortgage loan approval
- loan contingency removal
- appraisal contingency removal
- any increased deposits that might be required (see your role as a purchase contract or call your real estate agent)
- close of escrow date
Proactively, being aware of pivotal point in the home buying process will ensure that everything goes smoothly according to plan.
*Note-the number one reason for delays is not getting financial documentation to your mortgage lender within 24 business hours. We cannot stress that topic enough.
Congratulations on getting your purchase offer accepted!