Table of Contents
- What Are Netting Escrows & How Does It Work?: The Best Guide - January 2, 2024
- The Secret About Prescriptive Easement: Top Guide 1 Must Know - December 4, 2023
- About Home Equity Loans In Texas And How Can One Obtain It - November 27, 2023
Checklist for Closing On A House In Texas
The mortgage closing process is really very exciting.
If the seller just accepted the offer you made on your home, and you guys have agreed to work together, then let us understand what you can expect and the things you should know while moving forward and closing on a house in Texas.
Staying Organized
It is your real estate agent’s job to help you stay organized. What you can do to help your real estate agent out is to keep track of all the information that you are gathering while going through the process.
Make sure you are always reachable either through text, email, or any other means of communication that is convenient for you. A closing process may take anywhere between 15 to 45 days.
It depends on the location you are planning to buy your home, the type of loan you are offered, and many other factors that you might want to consider before closing on a house in Texas.
Understanding Your Contingencies
Contingencies are just the conditions that are included with an offer that must be fulfilled before closing on a house in Texas.
For example, a buyer can submit an offer with a home inspection contingency that would allow the buyer to back out if the home inspection results are not satisfactory.
We are not talking about cosmetic defects in the home inspections, and here we are talking about things like major structural issues.
Maybe the roof needs to be replaced because of significant damage, and repair is not a permanent solution to it.
If the seller is not willing to replace the roof in this case, the home inspection contingency will allow the buyer to back out of the contract and not lose the earnest money deposit.
Some other common contingencies may also include home appraisal, the title contingency, and financing contingency.
Home Inspection
You want to make sure you hire a licensed and certified home inspector to inspect before closing on a house in Texas.
We would suggest not to waive this home contingency, because, if there are structural issues and you don’t have a home inspection contingency, at that time, you would not be able to back out of the contract.
If you are backing out of the contract with a reason other than a contingency, you could end up losing your earnest money deposit.
Be careful when you choose to wave any contingencies and make sure you speak to your trusted real estate advisor.
Get their insight on that to make sure everything is good to go.
When your home inspector inspects the house, they are going to provide you with a summary report with pictures of their findings on the home.
This would give you a better idea of the home’s condition at the time of home inspection from their professional perspective and point of view.
Once you have the report, you can speak to your real estate advisor and prepare a repair request so that you can negotiate the same with the seller.
Once the request is forwarded to the seller, the seller may or may not counter your request.
At that time, you might need to do a re-negotiation or move forward.
Home Appraisal Contingency
Unless you are buying a home in cash, the appraisal needs to be conducted. When the home appraiser goes to appraise a home, they will survey the home’s condition and the value of the house.
The value that they assign to the home is called the appraised value.
You would not be able to get more home loans than the appraised value.
It is very important to do a comparative market analysis of the area in which you are buying your home with your trusted real estate advisor before making offers on the home that you shortlisted.
Just double-check the value of the home before the appraisals before closing on a house in Texas. A home appraisal contingency is not something that you want to wave.
If you wave the home appraisal contingency and the appraised value comes in less. The seller is going to expect you to come up with the difference out of your pocket.
Title & Financing
With the financing side, now it’s time to talk to your trusted loan officer to put everything to final underwriting and get the final approval before being able to fund your loan.
The title company also wants to ensure that the title that you are receiving on your home is free and clear of any defects of the title.
The title officer’s job is to get title insurance. Title insurance protects against losses in the event a problem arises with the title after the home is purchased.
In most home purchases, the lender and the home buyer require title insurance to ensure that you won’t have any unknown claims made to the ownership of your home.
Ordering Homeowner Insurance
You will need homeowner’s insurance before you can close on your house. You may want to start looking for insurance at least a couple of weeks before your closing.
After you have gone through the home inspection process, and your home appraisals have come in good, that is the time when you want your homeowner’s insurance taken care of so that you can provide the document to your loan officer during the closing process.
Final Walkthrough
The final walkthrough is one of the last steps that generally take place anywhere from one to five days before closing on a house in Texas. We suggest you do it at least three days in advance.
There are three reasons why you should do a final walkthrough at least three days beforehand.
The first one is to make sure that the home is in the same condition as it was when you made your offer.
The second one is to make sure all the necessary repairs were completed as requested on the repair request and agreed to by them.
The third is to make sure that everything which was included as part of the sale with the home is still in the house.
Conclusion
Once you have followed the above steps, you now have just closed on your house, and it’s time to celebrate. It is now time to get those keys from your trusted real estate advisor to your home.
