Step-by-Step Real Estate Transaction

Real estate transactions require involvement from several entities from contract to closing. Because of this, real estate transactions are typically complicated and require high levels of understanding about the process from start to finish.  Tami Winbury in Ojai and Ventura is a Family Realtor who will help you through the transaction.  Knowing what to expect in a real estate transaction can take a lot of the stress and guesswork out of the process for buyers and sellers alike.

1. Finding a Property

   • The first step in a real estate transaction is finding a property that you would be interested in purchasing. This can be aided with the professional guidance of a Realtor to help you determine location, past property values, and price ranges that would fit within your buying power. Proper research on any property prior to scheduling a viewing of the home will save you time and money in the long run by narrowing down properties that you will have the highest level of interest in, and weeding out properties that will not meet your needs.
     A real estate agent has a vast array of resources available to them in order to scale your search criteria down to meet the closest level of expectation in regard to all of your home buying questions. They will be able to help you by preparing a complete market analysis of any and all homes within your area and provide professional guidance on which properties would be a good fit and why.

   Submitting an Offer

   • A good real estate professional will guide you on making an aggressive offer, but one that will not insult the seller's of the property into giving you an abrupt "no" as an answer. Realtors will evaluate items like, cost of the property, property condition, title policy and other aspects of the property that might not be in order when submitting a proposed offer on the home of your choice.
     The Realtor will prepare an agreement to purchase the home, based on your criteria and buying power, ask you to sign it and submit it to the seller's agent for review. The seller's agent will then prepare an estimate of settlement costs for their seller and submit the offer along with the estimated charges and profits that a seller will receive. This estimate will often be the determining factor on whether or not the seller accepts the offer on the property as is, or if they would like to counter.

   Counter and Acceptance

   • Expect to receive a counter offer on the property. With an aggressively placed offer, the seller will often counter back at their best price as well as the best deal on the property in question. Once you have reviewed this with your Realtor, you can begin the next phase of the purchase which is acceptance of the counter offer.
     Once acceptance of the offer is received, the contract will be taken to the pre-selected title company to open up escrow on the property. This begins the transfer of ownership from the seller to the buyer. The contract is also presented to the lender for the buyer to begin the final work up of the loan and make necessary closing preparations.

   Inspections and Appraisals

   • In most areas, a buyer has ten days from the date the contract is accepted to have inspections and appraisals performed. This is more commonly known as the option period. Based on the results of the inspection and appraisals, adjustments can be made to the property amount, or specific repairs requested. If the seller is unwilling or unable to make adjustments based on this information, the buyer is not obligated to complete the purchase during the option period and can walk away from the purchase at any time. If the buyer does not perform these required steps, they become obligated to the transaction regardless. At the end of the option period, if all aspects are agreed upon and accepted, the transaction will move forward.

   Pending and Closing

   • Once repairs have been agreed to and other items addressed from the inspection and appraisal reports, the transaction moves into a pending status. During this time, the lender is processing all finalized requested documents for the transaction and is preparing those for the title company. The title company will act as a disinterested third party to the transaction and will prepare all of the deed and finalized loan documentation for the buyers and sellers of the property. Once all documents have been received by the title company, the buyer and seller are issued a clear to close on the property and can schedule a closing appointment.
     Closing appointments will take between one to three hours in length, depending on the details of the transaction. Once the closing is completed, the lender will wire the funds to the title company to complete the purchase, and the title company will disburse the amounts accordingly to the seller and to the new owner of the property or her lender. At this point, the home has now transferred ownership from seller to buyer and the buyer will receive their keys, and the transaction is considered closed.