Among the aspects of buying a house, completing paperwork with every I dotted and T crossed is important to ensure everything goes according to plan. Let’s help prepare you for your next home purchase by familiarizing you with 5 documents you will come across when buying a house in Atlanta.
Contracts
Chances are you will be utilizing at least the services of a mortgage lender if not also a qualified and experienced real estate agent. In both cases, there will be contracts to sign that clarify and set in stone certain guidelines.
Before signing any contracts, it’s important that you read them thoroughly in order to fully understand what it is that you’re signing. For example, your agent contract will specify any commission the agent will earn – which is negotiable. Your lender contract will include details regarding locking in your interest rate and an exclusivity clause. Once signed, this exclusivity clause states that you agree to move forward with attempting to obtain financing through that exact lender and no one else.
The reason to bring this up is to understand that once you have selected your lender and signed their contract, you are likely stuck with them.
Property Disclosure
You may or may not encounter a seller’s property disclosure during the process of buying a house due to stipulations in municipal and state laws, but they are quite common.
The property disclosure is an opportunity for the seller to inform any potential buyers of particular issues with the property in terms of condition or damage. For instance, some areas may require the seller to disclose any previous damage from flooding so that the buyer is fully knowledgeable of the potential for future flooding, installing a dewatering system down the road, or the possibility of their lender requiring flood insurance to be acquired.
Purchase Agreement
This document is more commonly referred to in layman’s terms as your offer. Your purchase agreement will include every condition you are putting forth for purchasing the home, including your proposed purchase price, any proposed repairs, inspections, and even the timeframe to have everything completed for closing.
Once the seller receives your purchase agreement, they will mull things over and can then choose to accept or reject your offer or present you with a counteroffer. The seller’s counteroffer can adjust any of the previously mentioned points or even propose eliminating certain things entirely.
A couple of common areas that will be argued over between the buyer and seller are the purchase price, who pays for closing costs, repair contingencies, and the inclusion of a home warranty.
Inspection Reports
Some homebuyers are not aware that there are a whole variety of inspections that can be done on a home and often depend solely on the traditional whole home inspection to suffice.
Whatever inspections you choose to have done – we certainly encourage at least the whole home inspection – the home inspector will send you a report detailing everything that was found and discussed with you during the inspection. You should always go through the inspection reports and make sure you did not fail to understand something about the operation of your home or its condition prior to moving forward with purchasing the property.
This inspection report then provides you with additional details that could be included in your repair contingencies if they are critical or costly enough.
Transfer Documents
Finally, we have the major documents that all detail the transfer of ownership of the property to you. These transfer documents include the title, deed, and occupancy.
If you are employing the services of an agent, they will handle everything regarding all three of these and you can live blissfully unaware these exist unless your agent encounters problems when completing any of the three.
Ultimately, all three of these transfer documents are what bring you under the ownership of the property and its utilities.
Guidance When Buying a House in Atlanta
If you want a steadfast partner when buying a house in Atlanta, contact us today at (404) 977-5054!