#19 Activating Your Team: Full Speed Ahead!
You
have found the home you want, have submitted an offer and the offer has been
accepted! At this point the team you
have carefully chosen has already been hard at work fulfilling their specific
roles on your behalf. They have helped
you appropriately get to this stage of your home purchase plans, and they are now
ready to move forward with you through all the appropriate “next steps.”
Your
home search-and-purchase team is like a fine-tuned machine that is organized to
be sure each important responsibility, task and obligation is met and handled. Those three: responsibilities, tasks and
obligations, while very closely related, each have distinct characteristics
that require specific expertise and focus.
For instance, a “responsibility” might be that of keeping clear and
complete communication and documentation records of all activities. “Tasks” would be all the detail management
and follow-through required to fulfill each process. An example of an “obligation” would be to be
available when needed, to respond to all communications (phone, text, email,
snail mail), to keep appointments on time, deliver authorizations, provide
sign-offs, and when in doubt – ask!
Those
three concepts, obviously, work in close proximity with each other. Your Lending Officer, Residential Realtor,
Appraiser, various Inspectors, Insurance professionals and other specialists
are the team that now analyses your accepted purchase offer and proceeds to
action on all directives and stipulations agreed to by you and the Seller.
Every offer and
every acceptance typically contains stipulations to which both parties have
agreed. There may be certain characteristics about
the property for which understandings and modifications exist. Inspection mandates for pest, septic, well
water, foundation condition, etc., are ordinarily attached to conditions in the
agreed sale document. The financial
obligation for such activities is usually decided in advance of finalizing acceptance
of the offer. Appraisal of property in the process of a
purchase
is ordered by the Lender and implemented by an acceptable appraisal management
company.
All parties must
be vigilant with timelines, and all parties need to know the planning and
patterns of the overall progress forward. That’s why communication and
documentation is so important! Many of
the actions mentioned above will proceed simultaneously, and therefore the
“traffic” created through necessary access to the property needs to be
scheduled with consideration. The
property for sale may be occupied, making it very important to consider the
occupants convenience when scheduling access to the property – interior or
exterior.
The time
constrictions, within the offer details and its acceptance terms, must be
respected.
It is very important for the Buyer to
also carefully review their choice of the property. The time to put all doubts to rest, OR, change
your mind (within the parameters and timeline allowed in the documents) is now!
It
is sometimes tempting to try to micro-manage the work your team is doing on
multiple levels; but it is seldom a good idea!
Remember, you selected qualified professionals, so let them do what they
know how to do, and are there to do for you.
Don’t confuse micromanaging with the reasonable need for keeping
yourself informed, asking pertinent questions or even expressing confusion! One is absolutely important – involving
legitimate inquiries; the other is simply needless interference that invites
misunderstanding, errors and wasted time.
Efficiency needs
to be well balanced with expedition.
Now is not the time to take shortcuts or skip over details in an effort
to “speed things up.” Your team is in
full swing and needs your support, your cooperation, your patience and your
availability. The process will soon be
ready for the Title Company – and that’s
the home stretch!
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