Columbia, South Carolina real estate is our specialty! Serving the Columbia, SC area, including Lake Murray, Cayce, Chapin, Irmo, Lexington, West Columbia
and more!
The Real Estate Contract or Offer to Purchase
The first step in the home buying process is to apply for a loan. The reason you do this so early is so by the time we are writing a contract your lender can give us at least a prequalified letter, and hopefully a pre-approved letter. Then we will go find the home of your dreams., or the closest thing to it that exists in the Columbia, SC real estate market!
Once we have found the very best home for you, then we are ready to write an “Offer to Purchase” the property. This is written on a form that becomes a legally binding contract, once the Seller has signed it with NO changes on it. It is rare for the first offer you make to be accepted. There is usually a period of negotiations and counter-offers going back and forth between the Buyer and Seller, via their respective agents. While, at this point it might seem simpler to be working with the listing agent or listing company, that is DEFINITELY not in your best interests. You need an Exclusive Buyers’ Agent whose loyalty and legal obligations are to protect you and represent you exclusively. That way all of your financial information and negotiating strategy can be kept confidential from both the Seller and their agent.
The Offer to Purchase states all the relevant terms and conditions of the Offer you are making on the property. It spells out what will happen in various scenarios and who is responsible for paying for what. Traditionally, all real estate contracts were written to protect the Seller, and the Buyers had to beware what they were committing to. This is because, until the late 1980’s all real estate agents were working for the Seller, either as their Listing Agent, or a “sub-agent” of their Listing Agent. Even though they might have showed you the house, their legal obligation was to protect the Seller. The Standard Realtor Contracts used by most companies even today tend to favor the Seller. The Exclusive Buyers’ Agents with Earth Available Realty, Inc. use a contract that was written and designed specifically to protect our Buyer clients’ best interests. In our effort to make it the best Buyers’ Contract we could have, it has been reviewed by hundreds of lawyers and agents all over the country.
It starts out identifying the parties involved (You and the Seller(s), goes to the price, and who is going to pay the Buyer’s Closing Costs and how you plan to pay for the property. (Having that preapproval letter is a big plus here as it assures the Seller and the Listing Agent that you will be able to do what you are offering to do, and will be able to close on the property. The strength of having this in hand before the offer is made is a huge advantage in the negotiating process, especially if we are in competition with another offer.)
The next sections spell out in great detail all of the contingencies of the contract. A Contingency Clause basically says,” We are making this offer as long as these conditions are met.” They cover things like being able to get financing, having an acceptable inspection and several other possibilities. These are put in to protect you from possible but unexpected complications.
The offer then specifies when and where the Closing will take place and whose name(s) will be on the deed. There are then several pages that spell out the legal details of the transaction. At the end is a place for both Buyers to sign.
After we have written the offer we will go over the entire document with you and explain anything you don’t understand.
We will get a check for Earnest Money from you, make a copy of that and the pre-Approval letter, to confirm for the Listing Agent that we have both in hand, and present the contract and those copies to the Listing Agent. The Listing Agent then takes the Offer to the Seller and goes over it with them. They can accept it, reject it, or make a Counter-Offer. The Listing Agent will then bring back to us a signed copy of an accepted offer, or a counter offer, or let us know that the Seller is not going to respond to our offer. If it is an accepted offer, you have just made a legal commitment to buy a house, and we will move on to the Home Inspection. If it is a Counter-Offer, then you will have to decide whether to accept it, or make a Counter of your own. If they wouldn’t respond, you may decide to go back with a different offer, or to go back to looking at properties.
Ask Hugh and Carol Ryall, Earth Available Realty, Inc., about real estate and homes in the Columbia SC area.