Real Estate Agent in Pinellas County, FL

Buying A Home In Florida:

Purchasing a home in Florida is a very big decision both emotionally and financially, whether you are purchasing as a primary residence, a vacation home, an investment, or some combination of these. 

 

Searching for and selecting the right property to purchase will have a huge impact on whether you truly enjoy and keep the home for years or will be dissatisfied and ultimately end up deciding to sell the house a few years later for greener pastures. After you or a trusted real estate agent in Pinellas have determined whether a house, townhouse, or condo is the best and most practical option for you, it is time to consider your budget, favorite activities, and lifestyle. 

 

If you are primarily planning on hitting the beach and enjoying the outdoors, then finding an affordable home very close to the beach will be important so you are able to enjoy it with or without getting in the car and worrying about parking. The majority of locals however will not be at the beach too often after the first few years of living here.  

 

Often we hear that people have decided that they really thought they wanted to live in one area, and then just a few years later they wish they had explored other areas as their lifestyle would really improve just by moving 5 miles or so away.  This is why if someone has not lived here locally for several years, I often encourage them to view homes in and seriously consider multiple cities prior to purchasing.

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Buying A Home Here... So you found the perfect place for you? 

First, Congratulations! Now comes the part you may not have gone through in quite a while. The initial offer to let the sellers know you are interested. Believe it or not, there are many things to think about and many strategies that you may consider. First, did you really get a good look at the property? 

 

A second showing with fresh eyes looking for potential issues may save you from receiving a horrible inspection, having to back out of a home sale, and waiting to get your deposit back.  Your initial offer should not be so low as to completely insult the seller as this will usually ensure that they won't negotiate much with you on any future offers. 

Second, you typically shouldn't just say "okay I like it, let's offer full price or maybe over asking price." When coming up with an offer your Realtor should quickly look at a few data sources to ensure the price is good so you don't end up overpaying or finding out that it appraised for tens of thousands less than you are offering.

 

Making Your Offer

Your offer will have many details that you have already gone over with your real estate agent in Pinellas ahead of time. These details are often used by the seller's listing agent to present the offer in a stronger or weaker way to the sellers (especially in a multiple offer situation). 

Often the terms end up having a bigger impact on the listing agents and sellers decision whether to accept or not then the price itself. Let's go into a little detail on the included contract terms below. ​​​​

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• Price: The price will obviously be top of mind for both buyer and seller.

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• Payment Details & Source: Your contract will stipulate whether you are paying Cash, Conventional, FHA, VA, USDA, or other. It will also show your down payment dollar amount or percentage with a letter or pre-approval. The proof of funds should be as up to date as possible and is usually just a screen shot of your online banking or investment account balance that clearly show your name and the date.
  
  Your Realtor should already have your pre-approval or proof of funds before you start looking at properties in person. This is because you cannot submit an offer without it that would even be considered. 

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• Closing Date: Often times how fast the deal closes will be critically important to one or both of the parties and the other party may not even think to ask prior to submitting the offer.
  
  While a typical closing date is 30 days out, many times both buyer and seller are ready and able to close in under two weeks. This just leaves both buyer and seller stressed and nervous for two weeks for no reason at all. Other times I will talk to a seller who absolutely cannot accept a timeframe under 45-60 days. 

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• Expiration Time: Your offer will automatically be good until this time and date unless you or your real estate agent revoke the offer early. This is the emotional roller coaster time for most people. You will keep wondering endlessly whether your offer has been accepted or rejected by the seller.
  
  Do not worry about calling your Realtor once or twice wondering as this is completely normal. Typically an offer is revoked early do to personal emergencies or you unexpectedly had a change of heart and decided to go with another home. While highly unusual, you should know that you do have this option. 

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• Inspection Period: Your Realtor must also put in an inspection period unless you plan on skipping the inspection. Typically only investors and cash buyers who have experience buying multiple properties feel comfortable skipping inspections.
  
  I always recommend that buyers outside of these groups get an honest and competent home inspector to come and thoroughly review the homes condition. You also can bring up multiple points in the home inspection to negotiate having work done or a price adjustment based upon cost of repairs.

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• Furnishings: Do you see something in that house that just feels like you've gotta buy the exact same thing if they take it? Good news, this is the line where you can compliment their style and ask for anything not bolted down or attached to the house! Imagine trying to replace one of a kind item that you truly love that took the seller years to find for just that particular spot in the home.

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• Assignment Of Contract: This line only applies to real estate investors and wholesalers, and yes every competent real estate agent in Pinellas, FL will catch it! need to be able to sell the property or the rights to it before you've even purchased it? These boxes must be checked properly to do that, otherwise you cannot just change your mind and try assigning, transferring, or double-closing on the property.

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• Additional Terms Area: This space is primarily for those unique scenarios where you want to add something unique to either strengthen your offer with terms or protect yourself further with additional terms to add to the contract.

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Submitting Your Offer:

Your offer is now submitted with your pre-approval or proof of funds to the sellers. You should expect about a response prior to the expiration of offer time that you put on the agreement. 

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Disclosures: 

Depending on the agent that we are submitting your offer to, they may ask for some or all of the disclosures to be signed and submitted with the offer. Many however will wait until the seller accepts your offer.

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What To Know About Inspections:

Now that you are officially under contract to purchase your new home, your FIRST responsibility will be to get an inspector scheduled right away. Typically your contract will state that your inspection period is between 5-7 days.  This is the period in which you must have the results of any inspections back and have submitted a request for repairs or credits based upon the results. 

 

Often an inspector may be booked out a fews and results may take a day or two to get back for review. Planning on this four day period is important after calling your inspector, and the reason why we want to get it scheduled as soon as possible. The cost of the home inspection is often around $450 currently and is paid for by the buyer. 

 

The inspector will typically find a wide variety of possible concerns that the buyer's agent will want to address with the seller or sellers agent. You will want to come up with a game plan with your real estate agent for whether you would like to ask the sellers to fix any items or whether you would prefer cash to be put in escrow for the repairs.

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Earnest Money Deposit:

Our standard in Florida is to turn in your earnest money within 3 calendar days. If the third day falls on a weekend or holiday then the time period is extended until the next business day. If you and the seller sign contract on a Friday for example, then you will count Saturday, Sunday, and then Monday will be the third day and your deposit is due at the title company prior to 5pm. 

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Scheduling The Survey:

If you are using a mortgage to purchase your home, your lender will typically order the survey of the property and the cost of this will automatically be added into your closing fees. The survey gives you documentation as well as peace of mind of knowing exactly where your property boundaries are located. Although it may seem surprising, it is actually a very common occurrence that your neighbors may be confused and think that they own a few feet over onto your new property. 

Cash buyers often skip this step thinking that everyone would know where the property lines are given the fences and clear boundaries. It is highly recommended that even cash buyers do not skip this step. Often when talking to the neighbors at some point they are surprised to hear that some or all of the neighbors claim to own several feet beyond the fences onto your new yard.

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Scheduling The Appraiser:

Your lender will also schedule the appraisal if you are using a mortgage to purchase the property. The appraisal is mandatory and proves to the bank that the property being purchased is in fact likely to be worth at least the contracted purchase price. If the appraiser feels that this is not the case, then you will have the option of backing out of the deal, renegotiating the price, or coming up with additional funds amounting to the difference between purchase price and the contracted price. While it is unlikely to have an appraisal come in low, it is more likely to happen when the housing market prices are rapidly changing.

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Submitting Paperwork To Lender & Title:

In day weeks leading up to closing, there will be dozens of small items that the lender, title company, and Realtors will need to get signed from you and each other to ensure that everything is completed on time or ahead of schedule if you and the seller are hoping for a possible early closing. The vast majority of these items will need reviewed by multiple groups of people and often submitted to the banks underwriting department for final approval.