How To Close A Home Sale Fast
Remember back when you made the decision to buy a house and it took ‘way longer than you anticipated? Signing a purchase agreement is the beginning of the process, but it could easily be a month or six weeks before closing day. When you prepare to sell your house you’ll remember the experience when you were a buyer and then you’ll have the patience needed to wait on closing your sale. Having patience during a real estate transaction is a very necessary component, especially for sellers.
Of course if you are using a real estate agent to sell your house it should be easier because you won’t be responsible for moving the purchase agreement and other documents through the legal process. And more importantly, you won’t have to help your buyers find inspectors or lenders. Agents will take care of those tasks, fortunately. And although you are required to provide clear title for your buyer most likely your agent will make certain the title work is done on time for that purpose.
However, if you sell your house yourself you must take your purchase agreement to a lawyer or a title company to get the title work started in order to guarantee clear title for your buyer. You won’t have a closing without clear title to your property. The title work usually goes on at the same time as the buyer’s property inspections, and during the mortgage loan approval process. This is where you, the seller, get very serious about simply waiting for the process to move along, which can be rather difficult at times.
Everybody says that the mortgage application and approval process can take many weeks in the present market, so I always advise sellers to keep their houses on the market and take back-up offers until the original buyers have a firm loan commitment. Although agents may hesitate to market properties that have a pending sale, go ahead and post classified ads online to get some calls and showings yourself. Do whatever it takes to sell your house and close your sale.
You have every right to market your house yourself, and regardless of how the buyer feels about it, he or she is not truly qualified to purchase your house until his or her loan is approved. Both your agent and any interested parties to the transaction need to remember that you are the seller and you are actually in charge.