Home Inspections are vital to a home purchase and can mean the difference between a dream and a disaster.  This is why home inspections are so important.  Bank owned or REO homes sometimes have certain requirements before a home can be sold.  Your lender will also have requirements like appliances in the home and no major repairs outstanding.

It is best not to use this as an excuse to try and get a better deal, but it can be a great way to get the seller to help with the cost of some of the repairs that may need to be completed for closing.  If there are repairs that need to be completed on your [Profile.market2] home you will want to get some estimates on the costs for these repairs and weigh the costs of having them done before the closing as opposed to doing them at a later time yourself.  Keep in mind that the lender may have repair requirements that they need completed themselves to process the loan.   After the appraisal the lender will let you know what has to be repaired before you can get the loan.

When your inspections are out of the way, it is time to have the appraisal of your house in [Profile.market2] scheduled.  The lender needs to be contacted and informed that the appraisal needs to be ordered.  The appraisal is one of the costs that will have to be paid up front (along with any inspections that need to be done on the property.)  The quicker all these steps take place the quicker you can close on the house.

Working with a Realtor is the best advise I can give you in order to have a smooth transaction.  It is best to contact your mortgage broker or lender once a week just to make sure they are not missing any documentation that you may need to get them, and that the process is moving ahead smoothly.  Once a week you will want your Realtor to contact your escrow officer that is in charge of the closing at the title company.  They are very busy, but just let them know it is important that you stay notified of anything you can do to help with the loan.   Like any other business it is the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

At this time you will also want to call your insurance agent and inform them you will be buying a house and will need coverage for the closing of the loan.  The title company will send you out a form that you will fill out with your insurance information, but it is a good idea to contact your agent up front and get the wheels moving as fast as possible.  Whenever the title company or the lender calls you requesting information get it to them in a timely manner.  The quicker you respond the quicker the loan process will take place.

You can generally expect a closing to take about 30 days from the time an offer is accepted.   If you have all your ducks in a row you can move the closing forward about a week but this depends solely on the lender.  You should speak with your mortgage broker and get a figure from them as well on what their average closing time is in [Profile.market2].

There are a lot of people involved in any single home purchase in [Profile.market2], but by understanding the order in which things take place, it will help you to make sure you will get the keys to your property in a timely manner and that you will have made the process as easy as possible.


There is a lot of free information available to you about buying, selling or investing in [Profile.market2] real estate.  For complete information about the Cape Coral Real estate market including current homes for sale, property values and more please visit the most complete website online dedicated to everything [Profile.market2] real estate at www.livingincapecoralnow.com and www.dancraddock.com.  So please feel free to contact me with any of your real estate questions and I will be glad to answer your questions.  Call me on my cell at [Profile.cell_phone] or email me at [Profile.email_link].

Have a Prosperous Day!