The Close

The C

lose By Theresa Grant Real Estate Columnist It can be a whirlwind experience or a long-drawn-out exhausting search for a new home but once that home is found, the real work begins. After finding just the perfect home for you, you must then determine the right price to offer, and hope that it hits the mark. If it does not, however, your agent will then have to negotiate on your behalf and try their very best to get the house that you want at the price you are willing to pay for it. If negotiations, which include far more than just price are successful, there will be some celebrating for sure. After all, you’ve just bought a house! After the signing of the papers, both seller and buyer need to obtain real estate lawyers to handle their transactions and see everything through to closing day. Once the lawyers are on board for both sides, the names of the lawyers are given to the real estate agents for both parties and the agents will exchange those names and submit their files to their brokerages respectively. Between the purchase date and the closing date the buyers are usually entitled to two re- visits of the home they have purchased. This is usually for the purpose of taking measurements of windows for blinds or curtains along with perhaps taking some pictures of rooms and measuring for placement of furniture or larger items. Measuring of doorways and staircase openings, especially in older houses, is very important. With the advent of the split box spring this is not as big an issue as it used to be years ago. There is a matter though of trying to get heavy large, bulky furniture up staircases that are not big enough. So, to this end, measuring is a good idea. The first of the re visits can be whenever the buyer wants it as long as the seller agrees to the time and day. That is usually not a problem. The second visit, which is often called the pre-closing visit, usually takes place either the morning of the close or the day prior. The idea here is to have it as close to the actual closing as possible. The purpose is to make sure that everything is as agreed to in the agreement of purchase and sale. If the seller agreed to leave the appliances you saw when you put the offer on the house, you don’t want to find on moving day that they have been switched out for other appliances. With more and more agents taking pictures and writing actual make and model numbers of appliances into the agreement of purchase and sale, that doesn’t happen all that often. The same is true for light fixtures and anything else that was agreed upon. You just want to make sure it’s all there for you when you move in.