The Home Buying Process

Initial Meeting
The whole process starts with our initial meeting.
This is your chance to decide if you are comfortable working with me, and helps me to identify what your needs and wants are.

Pre-Approval
After our initial meeting, I recommend you visit a mortgage broker, and get pre-approved for a loan.
It can be very frustrating when you find the perfect home, and then have a snag with the financing. The whole process is much less stressful when you get pre-approved. If you don’t have a relationship with a mortgage broker, I can recommend someone on my team.

The Search
Once we have the initial meeting, and you are pre-approved, we begin the home search process.
I’ll set you up with a property tracker account on Johnlscott.com. That way you can search for homes on Johnlscott.com and save your favorites ( I will be alerted when you have marked a house as your favorite).

I’ll search the RMLS, find properties that might work for you, and email you links to these properties. If you find any of them interesting, and want to take a look inside, we’ll make an appointment to view them. Once we find the right home, we will start discussing the offer.

Pre-Offer Research
Once you have found your new home, I’ll do a reverse CMA, to determine an approximate fair market value. I’ll call the listing agent, and discuss the house, how much interest they have seen, and seller’s motivation for selling. This will all help form the basis for your initial offer.

The Offer
I will meet you at the office, and we will discuss how we want to structure your Purchase and Sale Agreement. With a reverse CMA in hand, and my research, we can also set our negotiating strategy.

We will take as much time as necessary to go over the paperwork, so that you understand what you will be signing. There will be Contingencies in your P&S Agreement, to protect your interest in the transaction and in case there are any problems with the house.

Typical Contingencies in the Offer
Title Contingency– To make sure the title is clean, and without liens.
Contingent Upon Selling Home– In case you need to sell your home first.
Home Inspection Contingency-To make sure there are no major defects in the home.
Septic Inspection Contingency-To make sure there are no problems with the septic system.
Well Inspection Contingency-To make sure there are no problems with the well.
Financing Contingency– To make sure you get your earnest money back, if you cannot get financing.

Before leaving, I will request an earnest money check, usually 1% or less of the purchase price. I will hold this check until both you and the seller have mutual agreement .

The Negotiation Process
Once I have your offer in hand, I will present it to the seller, via the listing agent, along with my Reverse CMA (To support your offering price). The seller and their agent will then discuss your offer, and within three days, typically one of three things will happen:

The Seller accepts your offer as is.
If they accept your offer, we have mutual agreement, and your Purchase and Sale Agreement and earnest money check will go to the Escrow Company, and the sale moves forward.

The Seller submits a counter offer
Perhaps the seller has a different price in mind, or the removal of one of the contingencies? In this case, we will discuss the counter offer, and you have three options:
A). Accept the counter offer.
If you decide to accept the counter offer, we have mutual agreement, and your Purchase and Sale Agreement and earnest money check will go to the Escrow Company.
B). Submit a counter offer to seller.
If you decide to submit a counter offer to the seller, we will wait for the seller’s response.
C). Reject the counter offer.
If you reject the counter offer, the P&S Agreement is void.

The Seller rejects your offer.
If the seller rejects your offer or does not respond, the P&S Agreement is void.

Negotiation Continues
The negotiation process will continue until there is mutual agreement, or one or both of the parties is not interested in negotiating, and rejects an offer or counter offer. If we don’t have mutual agreement, the P&S Agreement is void, and I will return your earnest money check to you, and we begin the home search again.

Mutual Agreement
Once we have mutual agreement, I submit the signed around Purchase & Sale Agreement to the Escrow Company, along with your earnest money check. We begin to address all the Contingencies in the P&S Agreement. Some of them are automatically waived.
Here is a typical timeline:

Title Contingency-The Title Company will initiate a Preliminary Title Search, within 3 days, to make sure seller has a clean and saleable title. This contingency is automatically waived within 5 days.

Contingent Upon Buyer Selling Home-You must list your home for sale within 5 days, and must sell your home within 45 days, or this contingency is automatically waived.

Home Inspection Contingency– I will make an appointment with an inspector of your choice within 3 days, to have the home inspected for defects. You pay for this. The same day as the inspection is performed, I will file an Inspection Notice, which will allow us to:
1) Terminate the P&S Agreement based upon the inspection.
2) Request that the seller make repairs.
3) Waive the Home Inspection Contingency.
This contingency will automatically waive after 10 days.

Septic Inspection Contingency– Seller will have the septic system inspected, and if necessary, pumped. This contingency will automatically waive after 10 days.

Well Inspection Contingency– You will have 10 days to have the well inspected .You pay for this. If your lender requires it, the Seller will have to provide a health certificate from Clark County Health Dept. This contingency will automatically waive after 10 days.

Financing Contingency– You will have 5 days to apply for a home loan, and 45 days to get loan approval. If you are unable to obtain a loan, the P&S Agreement is void, and your earnest money is returned to you.

Once all contingencies are waived, your purchase proceeds to close.

Closing is done by the Escrow Company, a neutral third party, who makes sure the following steps are followed:

The title is clean.
All the paperwork has been properly filled out.
The funds are in place to complete the transaction.
The funds are dispersed properly.
All documents are complete and signed.
The transaction is legally recorded.

Then I will hand you the keys to your new home!