Real Estate Purchase Contracts: Moving in After Closing

Finished at last! The paperwork has all been completed, and you're anxious to move in. It seems like it has taken forever, and finally here you are. But wait. What's that? A delay? Just a little one, what harm can it do?

Sometimes the seller will ask to stay in the property for a time after the closing. As the buyer, you can approve or disapprove the seller's request, but before you make that decision, here are some things to consider.

It can happen, in the last days of frantic activity just before closing, that the seller asks for more time. It could seem reasonable, that they want to clean out the home a little better, or clean up other loose ends related to their own move or the transfer of the property in a clean condition. While the request may seem to be perfectly in order, you must consider it with caution. If you choose to allow the seller to stay in the house after closing, the seller must, at the very least, be required to pay a fee for the additional days, and that part of the contract must be documented.

There must be a definite limit on the time the seller can stay in the property after the signing of the contract, and it must be in written form. A clear agreement or contract addendum containing the details of the post-closing possession for benefit of the seller can be provided by the real estate attorney or, in jurisdictions where attorneys are not necessarily part of real estate contracts, by the escrow officer.

If the seller announces at the time of closing that he or she has to stay in the property longer, it is normally a good idea to delay closing on the home until such time as the seller can clear out or acceptable paperwork has been drafted and signed.

As a buyer, once you complete the purchase of a property, that property belongs to you and is your responsibility. This is true even if it is occupied by another party. If the seller causes a fire on the property, it is your loss. The seller will not have to pay for the loss unless it is included in the post-closing possession agreement, and even then the seller's liability as a renter may be restricted under law.

Additionally, sellers who retain possession of the real estate after closing have less motivation to take care of the property and make needed repairs. When closing on any property, you are accepting the property in the condition in which it stands at the time of closing.

Liability Issues
Whatever occurs to the property after closing is the responsibility of the buyer, regardless of who is actually occupying the property. If a furniture mover scars a wall or the kitchen tile or a window pane gets knocked out, you will have to pay for the repair.

A common problem with letting the seller keep possession of the home beyond the closing date is that items that should remain with the home can vanish between the closing and the time the buyer eventually takes possession of the property. Even when such a thing as this happens, the buyer is responsible for the missing items because they own the property.

As a buyer, you have a responsibility commensurate with your investment in the home. It is in your best interest to insist on possession at the time of closing, or to reschedule the closing until the previous owner has gotten out from the property and can turn over the keys.

Content furnished by your Highlands Ranch real estate experts in Colorado, Automated Homefinder.

Set the Right Target Price and Sell It on Your Terms

When you're getting ready to put your home on the market, if you want a quick sale you have to list it at the right price point. The higher your price, the longer it will take you to sell it. Rather than starting out too ambitiously and having to concede later, it may be advisable to start a little lower than your brother-in-law said, in order to make the deal go through without delay. If you have already started looking for another house you would increasingly feel the pressure to sell, and sitting on the market with too high a price is a real morale killer.

Use Available Resources to Be Competitive
If you want to have a successful sale the thing to keep in mind as a starting point is to be the best deal in the area. Market analysis, which involves more than just seeing what else is for sale in the area, is something best accomplished by your Realtor. Setting a workable price point is definitely something a Realtor can bring to the process to get headed toward a successful conclusion.

Speed of Transaction Versus Higher Price
Consider the process of buying a consumer item for your home. You would probably not spend too much time deciding between an item you could buy in your neighborhood and one that might cost less but you needed to spend a lot of time and energy researching, finding and hauling and making complicated arrangements to obtain. There is a value on your time, and that is true as well for the time needed to find the right buyer, or rather having that buyer get around to finding your gem of a home. If you look at it with this in mind, you can start to see the problem from a different perspective. If you are listing your home in a depressed market, you may end up having to not only drop your price after it goes on the market, but also offer other extras such as cosmetic repairs or improvements to get a sale at all.

The Art of Compromise
Market conditions may dictate not only the price you can get for your home as mentioned above, but also the timing of your sale. It might not be the time for you to sell for your desired top price, but when the situation changes you may have to go quickly. You may have to wait, or go in on a shift in conditions and sell quickly, depending on the market environment and momentum. This can mean selling your home before you decide on another one, and unless you have relatives or very special friends with whom you can stay awhile, you may defeat your purpose in gaining extra profit from the sale by having to move into temporary rental housing until you find another home. Sometimes the buyer might be agreeable to wait for you, especially if they can stay in their current home a little longer. More often, though, it works out that the buyers are anxious to move into their new place as soon as their loan is approved so you might not have the luxury of staying -- that big train of events is hard to stop once it gets moving.

About That Repair Work...
It is too easy to not think about actual differences when you are setting the price on your home and you see other homes going for what seems to be attractively high prices. It's easy to see a home sell for an attractive price on their block and conclude that yours should be sold for the same, turning a blind eye to features or repairs that would make all the difference. You can, however, price it to move pretty quickly by lowering your price to offset the work the new owner will have to do. You must realize, though, that this option is only pertinent jobs of a cosmetic nature -- normally things such as structural problems and air conditioning units must be repaired before closing. Things like painting, replacing tired landscaping, refinishing wood floors and similar projects can be put off by lowering your price for the home. The main point to remember is that if you take both the value of your valuable time and effort, and having the house sit losing luster too long with the for sale sign up, the smartest approach is truly to do the strategic thing by pricing right from day one. Price it right if you want to sell it quickly.

You must be especially sensitive to this rule if your home is not clearly the best one around. There are people who like to buy a home that needs some repair work so they can make it their own, and if your home is in need of work then being too high-priced will leave you in a bad position. Even if yours is the best one around, though, unrealistic asking prices have a way of hurting in the end. From the outset, your best bet is to price it right.

This content was provided by Automated Homefinder, Colorado's Denver real estate experts.