Claudia S. Nelson Realtor with Keller Williams Realty, Woodbridge VA
So you just received an offer on your home for sale and you the seller and the purchaser agreed to all the terms, meaning you now have a fully ratified contract.
What now?
Your Real Estate Agent will forward the ratified contract to the title/settlement company and you should expect to receive an sellers information letter with a sellers information sheet that needs to be completed and returned to the title company or your Real Estate Agent.
If your contract was contingent upon a home inspection the purchaser will have a home inspection and send you a report. You will review the Home Inspection Report and Home Inspection removal addendum with your Real Estate agent and determine next steps.
If you agree to repair items from the home inspection please consult with your agent. Most of the time you will need a licensed contractor to perform work prior to closing. Always make sure you receive an invoice or proof of work from the contractor. Keep in mind the buyer will have a walk-through prior to settlement and in some instances will come back with the home inspector, to verify the work. All agreed upon work has to be completed prior to settlement or even better prior to the walk-through.
Schedule your move. Your move out date depends on what you agreed in the sales contract, but most of the time you will have to be out of the home prior to settlement. Meaning all the furniture has to be out of the home, the home should be cleaned and I would also recommend carpets be cleaned.
Utilities. Be sure you leave the utilities on until after closing! You can schedule a turn off date but in the event closing gets delayed please assure to rescheduling the turn off date, in the event the buyer has not yet scheduled over the utilities.
Be sure to leaving items that you agreed will convey. For example if the contract calls for window treatments will convey please be sure to leaving window treatments, that includes curtain rods and curtains. This could become a problem if you remove items you agreed in the contract. You might have a favorite tree that you planted when your kids were born and you want to take the tree with you, but if you did not agree to in the sale contract you CAN NOT remove that.
Forward your mail to your new address.
On day of closing make sure you bring ALL keys including mailbox, backdoor keys, keys to the shed, combination to a built in safe, garage door openers with you to closing. You will hand over the keys to either the settlement agent, the buyer or your agent.
Be sure to bringing a form of identification along with you to settlement and make sure you provide the settlement agent with the instruction on how you would like to receive your proceeds. The easiest is just bring a voided check.
This sums it about up. After settlement, after all parties signed, I always recommend to calling the utility companies to making sure utilities are transferred out of your name. Also make sure the bank that was holding the mortgage has your forwarding address as you should be receiving some escrow money back directly from the lender. You might also want to call the insurance to making sure they know the home has been sold and don't forget to cancel alarm system, yard maintenance or any other contracts you might have.
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