Submitting an offer for a residential property
in Lower Fairfield County.
1) An offer to purchase is presented.
2) Signed Property Disclosures are signed by the buyers and sellers and
presented with the offer.
3) A check for 1% of the offer price is needed from the buyer. This check
is placed into an escrow account
within 3 business days of the offer.
4) A mortgage pre-approval letter is submitted with the offer.
The offer to purchase states your desired closing date (on average
60 days of offer)
, the
Real Estate Attorney you are going to use,
the amount you intend to finance, when
you are able to sign contracts (this is normally within
2 weeks of submitting the offer), when inspections will be completed,
(normally within 5 days) and if there is a mortgage contingency when
it
will be satisfied, (typically within 3 weeks of the submitted
offer). The offer also lists any other items excluded or included in
the sale of the property.
The offer to purchase is also
known as a "property binder".
When this
has been signed by both the seller and the buyer the status of the
listing is changed on the CMLS (Realtor database) to reflect CTS.
A very small amount of showings if any might occur after the change in
status, most agents do not show properties under the CTS status. Any
other offers at this point would be considered a back-up offer
although technically the binder is not a contract and the sellers
could go with a higher offer prior to contracts being signed. This is
why it is important to show you are acting in good faith and moving
along quickly with inspections, satisfying contingencies and signing
contracts as soon as possible.
When the contracts are signed, 9% of the agreed upon sales price is
required from the buyer at the signing and placed into the escrow
account
until the closing along with the 1% deposit. At this time the
money
is transfered from the buyer attorney's escrow to the seller
attorney’s
escrow account where it is held until the closing.
The status of the listing is changed to Pending on
the MLS after the contracts have been signed and the property is no
longer
shown to prospective buyer's.
The sales price of
the home is never disclosed for public record
until the closing. This protects the Seller in case a Buyer is
unable to perform and the Seller's need to place the property back on
the market.
In some of the neighboring towns such as Greenwich and Darien the
binder
system is not used when buying a home. Contracts are signed
as soon as
possible after inspections have been statisfied therefore the
contract
signing typically takes place within a week of the agreed upon sale price.
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