What happens after you accept an offer?

What happens in the first few days after you accept an offer in Florida?

The contract gets an effective date, and every deadline counts from it. In the Florida Realtors and Florida Bar AS IS contract, the effective date is the day the last of the buyer and seller signed or initialed and delivered the final offer or counteroffer. Write that date down where you will see it.

The deposit comes next. The initial deposit either accompanies the offer or goes to the escrow agent named in the contract within the number of days written in, which is 3 days after the effective date if the blank is left empty. Any additional deposit is due 10 days after the effective date if that blank is empty.

The contract runs on calendar days where the property is located. A deadline other than acceptance and the effective date that falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or national legal holiday rolls to the next day that is none of those. If you already hold an owner's title policy or a survey, the contract asks you to furnish copies within 5 days after the effective date.

How long is the inspection period on a Florida AS IS contract?

Fifteen days after the effective date when the blank is left empty, and the number is whatever the parties wrote in otherwise. During that window the buyer can have any inspections done and can cancel for any reason, in the buyer's sole discretion, by written notice before the period expires. A timely cancellation returns the deposit to the buyer.

Your job during those days is access and upkeep. The AS IS form requires you to maintain the property, including the lawn, shrubbery, and pool, in the condition it was in on the effective date, and to make it available for inspections and appraisals. If the buyer's inspection turns up open or needed building permits, the form requires you to promptly deliver the plans and written records you have about them.

The standard Florida Realtors and Florida Bar contract works differently on repairs. It adds seller repair limits, each 1.5 percent of the purchase price if left blank, for general repair items, for wood-destroying organism treatment and repair, and for closing out open or expired permits.

When is the buyer's financing and appraisal settled in Florida?

By the end of the Loan Approval Period, which is 30 days after the effective date if the blank is empty. The buyer has to apply for the loan within 5 days after the effective date unless another number is written in. Loan approval under the form includes the lender receiving an appraisal or alternative valuation it finds satisfactory, if the lender requires one.

Before the period ends, the buyer either tells you in writing that loan approval came through, confirms in writing that they will proceed anyway, or terminates and gets the deposit back. If the buyer sends no notice at all, the contract proceeds as though it were a cash deal, but you then have 3 days after the period expires to terminate by written notice.

What do the title commitment and survey check?

Whether you can deliver the title the contract promises, and whether anything sits where it should not. The title commitment, issued by a Florida licensed title insurer, is due at least 15 days before the closing date if the blank is empty, or 5 days in a cash deal. The buyer then has 5 days after receiving it to point out, in writing, any defect that makes title unmarketable.

You get 30 days to cure. If you cannot, the buyer can extend the cure period for up to 120 days, accept title as it is, or terminate and recover the deposit.

The buyer may order a survey at the buyer's expense at least 5 days before closing. An encroachment the survey reveals, reported to you within 5 days after the buyer receives it, is treated as a title defect under the same cure rules. If you supplied an older survey, the buyer can ask you to sign an affidavit that nothing has changed since it was drawn.

What happens at the walk-through and closing in Florida?

The walk-through happens the day before the closing date or on the closing date before closing, as the buyer chooses. Its scope is narrow: to confirm the personal property in the contract is still there, that you maintained the house as required, and that you met your other obligations under the contract.

Closing happens when the closing agent has collected all the funds and both sides have delivered their documents, at the time the closing agent sets. Florida requires a deed to be signed in the presence of two subscribing witnesses. The contract has the deed recorded once all closing funds are collected, and recording is what makes it effective against later purchasers and creditors who lack notice of it.

Ask your closing agent which documents you sign ahead of time and which you sign at the table. A Florida title agent or a Florida real estate attorney can answer a question about your title or the deed before closing day.

What happens after an offer is accepted in Louisiana?

The Louisiana Residential Agreement to Buy or Sell, the Louisiana Real Estate Commission form, binds both sides on acceptance. The buyer or the buyer's agent has to deliver the deposit within 72 hours of notice of acceptance, and the form treats a missed deposit as a default. The deposit is held by the listing broker, the selling broker, or another party the form names.

The due diligence and inspection period starts the first day after acceptance and runs for the number of calendar days written into the form. You provide utilities and immediate access, and the period is extended day for day if you do not. Inside it, the buyer can terminate in writing, or deliver a single, signed, complete written list of deficiencies and requested remedies.

If the buyer sends that list, you have 72 hours to answer in writing. If you refuse some or all of it, the buyer has 72 hours to accept your response, take the house as it is, or terminate. A buyer who sends nothing before the period ends is deemed to accept the property's current condition. Every calendar day in the agreement ends at 11:59 p.m. Central time.

How do financing, appraisal, and the act of sale work in Louisiana?

On a financed sale, the buyer must give you written documentation from a lender that a loan application was made, and authorization to proceed, within the number of calendar days written in. If that does not happen, you may terminate in writing. The appraisal is a checkbox: if the sale is conditioned on it and the value comes in below the agreed price, the buyer can ask you to reduce the price, and the deal goes forward only if one side gives ground.

You owe the buyer merchantable title, and the cost of making it merchantable is yours. If curative work is needed, the form allows the act of sale to be pushed back by up to the number of days written in. The buyer may re-inspect within 5 calendar days before the act of sale or occupancy, whichever comes first.

The act of sale is executed before a settlement agent or notary public the buyer chooses, on the date in the agreement, and keys and possession transfer then unless agreed otherwise. Louisiana law requires a transfer of immovable property to be made by authentic act, which is signed before a notary and two witnesses, or by act under private signature. It has effect against third persons from the time it is filed for registry in the parish where the property is located. A Louisiana attorney or the closing notary can walk you through the act before you sign it.