We are talking about, so last week we talked about

you bought your house, now what?

But this week is you got your offer accepted, you are under contract.

What happens now?

So this is where We kind of start fading into the background a little bit and

then you get to know the lender and the underwriter really, really, really well.

Yes.

So we are here in case of there's something happening or

some, put it this way, the less you hear from us, the better.

Yes.

You're hearing from us too much.

It usually means something is wrong.

Well, I will also say that if you are inspecting, then you'll

hear a lot more from us right away.

And we are going to get you instructions for deposit and that kind of thing, but

we're going to go through a little bit.

I think that there's a, you know, it's a lot of like running around and

hurrying up and then you get your offer accepted and then it's like the next

morning, it's like, okay, so now what?

Yeah.

So

this episode, we're going to talk a little bit about the things

that you should know and it's really like.

Four main things.

And, and Jen also is gonna do the heavy lifting on this because I'm

sure you guys are bored to tears with these past few episodes.

Me talking about economics and I am the capital of Morocco.

Um,

, Seth Lejeune: can I say,

um, I'll also say, oh, by the way, I

just wanna, I, I wanna say something.

My a DD is raging today, but that's not what I wanna say.

Oh my God.

That's usually me.

I know.

But, uh, my neighbors and I, we went and we won a quiz though.

Uh, uh, uh, a quiz.

Oh, trivia was one

of the questions.

What's the capital of Morocco?

No, but I was really hoping it was, but no, it was funny.

There was a, um, there was a round where they gave you the

outlines of countries with, but like, they didn't say what it was.

I'm

sure so many people got it wrong.

No.

And I'm like sitting there and I was the one who was writing down

the answers and like, I saw it.

I like wrote it down.

And then I'm like, I don't know.

I got sidetracked.

I think I was like on my phone and they're all I look across table and they're

all like, Oh, I think it's this thing.

It's like, guys,

just give it to me.

No, it's not.

I'm like, it's Spain.

I was like, but I wasn't good at the music.

I wasn't good at the movies.

I know I was good at the movies, no good at the music.

And then all like the pop trivia, like, do you remember what

the name of the magazine was?

In a devil wears Prada.

Did you ever see that?

Oh my

gosh.

Yes.

Uh, runway.

It was runway, but everyone was like, it's Vogue.

And my wife was like, no fucking way.

Is it right?

Is it Vogue?

But it was supposed to be based on that.

Yes.

And it was runway.

So yeah.

So you got fun facts.

I had no, I had no idea.

I love it.

It's a

great movie.

Yeah, it is.

It's a good movie.

So

anyway, you're under

contract now.

Yeah, you're under contract.

What

I was going to say is you get a, you get

a, you get a year long subscription to runway

magazine as a, as a, Yeah.

No, let's go.

Disclaimer.

A lot of this is specific to Pennsylvania real estate law.

Yes.

Um, I will talk in some timelines of things again, specifying

that as to Pennsylvania real estate law, and it is different state by state.

So first thing you're on a contract, your offer gets accepted.

Very first thing that is due is your deposit.

Uh, this is due and hopefully you know this before you go under contract.

So in your agreement of sale, you are putting in the offer price.

You're also putting in a deposit amount.

Let's just say it's 10, 000 that 10, 000 is due in Pennsylvania with

unless you make any changes within five days of going under contract.

So your offer gets accepted on Monday.

On Tuesday, that is your first day of your five days.

You have to get that into the, to the listing broker's office.

If they're the ones holding it could be a title company could be your office.

That's what you decide when you're going under contract,

but you have at most five days.

To get that deposit in so that 10, 000 will go towards

your closing costs as well.

So you need to be able to have that readily available and make

sure that when you're putting out your offer, that you know what your

deposit is, because then the next day you want to get on getting that.

So you'll hear from your agent and we will tell you either if you want

to do a wire deposit so you can wire it to the listing broker's office and

we'll get you the wire instructions.

Or you can get a certified check.

Rarely are personal checks accepted.

They can't be there for over 30

days.

Escrow laws allow for over 30 days.

Um, if you can do a personal check, but generally we like to do wires

or cashier's checks just because it just makes everything a little bit

more seamless because then you don't have to wait for things to clear, um,

which then allow for other mechanisms in the agreement sale to take place.

But keep in mind, this is a question I get all the time.

I always want to say about these escrow monies, this money

goes back to you at settlement.

So basically what you're doing is you're just kind of prepaying.

Your closing costs, because when you go to settlement, the listing

agent is going to bring that 10, 000 to settlement and it will go

directly towards your closing costs.

So you're going to bring closing costs less whatever you

put into escrow, uh, deposit.

I've just also heard though, like a couple of times of,

Oh, I was told that I have plenty of time to get this money together.

It's like,

Yeah, you should have the liquidity.

You should have it readily available, uh, because you only get five days,

uh, to, uh, to get it to escrow.

So I actually just ran into this issue and I kind of forgot.

And I, they had plenty of money, but it was all tied up and

it was a really big deposit.

Um, By the way, deposits in Pennsylvania are anywhere from three to four percent

of the purchase price, which if you're not in Pennsylvania and you're down

south or out west, that is going to be like, oh, wow, because like, I know,

I know a million dollar properties in South Carolina, like it's a thousand,

not even that far down, even Delaware.

Yeah.

And like, if you're getting advice from somebody who even lives in like a.

bordering state.

It is, it is just done very differently there than it is here.

Yeah.

And

we, I like the big deposits in Pennsylvania because it can demonstrate

your seriousness about the property.

If I was selling a million dollar property and somebody was going to put a five, a

500 deposit or a thousand dollar deposit, I'd be like, Okay, I mean, a person buying

a million dollar house, how invested if they really want to leave the contract,

they're going to leave 1, 000 with the seller and get out of the contract.

Like I want, I want, I want a buyer to be financially and mentally obligated

and committed to the property.

And that's why I like how Pennsylvania does it.

Make sure you have the liquidity.

Sure.

Available.

Okay.

Okay.

Make sure you have the money available.

Just make sure you got the money.

Don't, don't, uh, don't waste our time until you got the money.

You also can't.

So, uh, a point B to a 0.

1 AB section C of deposits.

Uh, the reason why you also need to prioritize getting

that in sooner than later.

And like, don't wait until day five is you can't really do much, uh, until that's in.

And there's not much really writing on the contract until it's there.

So a lot of listing agents won't let you, if you are getting an inspection,

a lot of agents won't let you inspect until they have deposit because otherwise

there's nothing to bind anybody to this agreement other than some signatures.

Anything to add?

No, I think we have absolutely beaten this to death.

So I think we're ready to move on.

Okay.

So then the next thing that is going to happen, uh, we're ordering title.

So again, in Pennsylvania, we do a domestic search when you go to do titles.

So they will be asking for your socials.

They can run that.

They're also going to be asking you for a bunch of other things, your

contact information, certs are going to be getting ordered through the

township and all sorts of things.

So that's all the stuff that's happening on the back end there.

That we're ordering for you, you're going to be going into inspections

if you did elect for those.

So that's going to be the next chunk of time.

That's going to be taken out of your contract time.

So if you are getting those, that's when you're still talking to us.

And again, standard timeframe in Pennsylvania, you have 10 days to

inspect within that time you schedule your inspection, you get your report.

And you write up what's called a BRI.

It's your buyer's reply to inspections.

And that's when you get to negotiate any repairs, any credits, or

a reduction in purchase price, whatever it is you want to do.

You have 10 days to do all of that unless modified otherwise.

And then your agent will send that over to the listing agent.

They then have a standard five days to Negotiate those terms and to come to

an agreement of what's going to happen.

Then those five days, then there is what's called a CTA written

up a change in terms agreement.

And you guys agree on what they are going to be responsible for, whether

it be the repairs or the credit or the purchase price, if anything.

And then if you still don't have anything agreed upon within that five days,

there's two more grace period days.

And if not, we don't

use unless it's one time.

I didn't stay in circumstances.

I do not.

I don't like using them.

You can't get

this all figured out in 15

days and something's very, very wrong.

Either parties aren't acting in good faith or there's just way too

much to negotiate and you should consider probably moving forward.

So within that time, this is your inspection contingency period.

So within this time, if you can't come to an agreement, then that

is when you put together a TRL.

There's so many letters to it.

There's so many.

Termination.

So, that is where you release the contract, um, and that's when

you're permitted to if you decide to not move forward with the sale

because you guys can't come to an agreement after inspections.

That's when you submit that.

You get to walk from contract.

They have to release the deposit back to you.

And then.

You start all over.

By the way, they don't have to release the deposit back to you.

That part of that document is to, uh, say where the deposit monies go.

So you can sometimes split it, or if the buyer just totally flakes on

it and wants to terminate, and they don't have rights to the deposit,

that document will tell you whether it goes to the buyer or the seller.

Um, I have not executed except for one, and it was Our friend up in Birdsboro.

I have not written it.

I have not written a termination for an agreement of sale since 2019.

Every single person I've gotten under contract has gone either.

Uh, uh, every buyer.

Oh, wait.

Yeah.

We're talking about the same one.

Yeah.

Every buyer I've put under contract since 2019.

We're talking probably a hundred and some.

I had one have

gone, have gone under contract.

I had to write.

Well, I wrote that one in Birdsboro.

And Yeah, technically

I didn't write it.

Yeah.

But I, it is one that we were, you pushes to me so that

you can say, I've never done it.

Jen did it.

Uh, no, there's that one.

I wrote another one, but it was only for protection.

Yeah.

Something has adjusting case people, but we still, here's

another thing, guys, is that if you, if you, uh, let's imagine

you inspect, you send over what the BRI, which is the buyer's reply to

inspection and the seller does nothing.

It is specified in the agreement of sale.

This is Pennsylvania again.

Well, we don't know.

We're not going to talk about all of them, but if a lack of response, and

I think I told you this even two weeks ago, a lack of response is a response.

It is, does not require the seller to do anything.

And if you let all those days lapse.

You forfeit your inspection contingency.

So a good agent will be able to talk you through that.

Again, if you guys get the 13, 14, 15 days, something's wrong.

Um, even with a septic inspection, you know, as long as you can get that

septic inspection done, like, you know, maybe sometimes you're waiting

for like contractors or you're doing something like that, waiting for quotes.

And, but as long as the two parties are communicating, you

shouldn't need more than 15 days.

Yeah.

So we want to wait after you on a contract.

Typically the next day I'm writing out a next steps email and it's going

to be to get your deposit in first and then the next like that day I'm

probably talking to you about scheduling inspections and getting it done.

Like the sooner it all gets done and over with the better and everybody

can just move along and keep going.

Yeah.

And just keep in mind, uh, we're going to send this to people

who Freshly go in our contract.

We're not trying to scare you.

We're going to be every step of the way and any agent.

Um, who's you're working with should be if they're not communicating with

you proactively, then you should really insist upon it because you

don't do this all day every day.

You're so not supposed to know how to do this.

And now that you've entered into a legal contract with another party,

it's super important that you just stay on top of all your contingencies.

But generally, these are yeah.

Rather formulaic, like there's some, there's some, you know, uh,

course corrections that need to take place, but if you got two good

agents, everything should be fine.

And this is why, like, you've written two, three terminations in your

entire career, and I've, I mean, I used to write them a little bit

more back in 2016 17, but again, I haven't written one in four years.

So, um, what's next?

Next one was So then the, the next thing, that major thing that's

going to happen, uh, and really probably really like the last like key thing

that happens while you're in a contract.

Well, yeah, but before the appraisal is going to be the, is,

is you're really going to formally,

Oh, you're going to become besties with your lender and their

underwriter.

You saw that, you saw that meme, the breaking bed or the better call

Saul meme, where it's like, where it's the underwriter and the buyer.

And it's like, it's You know, we're done when we say when I say, Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Where it's basically like the underwriter is running.

The underwriter is running the show for the lender.

So they're going to ask for a lot of documents.

The lender is going to be.

And then when you

send those documents, they're going to ask you for three

more documents about that document.

And then they're

going to ask you for the same document.

About two weeks later.

Now, uh, so there are basically three people in the loan process that

you're going to become besties with.

You have your loan officers, the person who probably onboarded

you in the first place.

They're the ones who gave you your, uh, your pre approval.

The other one is the processor.

They're not licensed, uh, loan officers.

All they do is just process.

They just, they just take like documents and they, They basically check boxes for

then what's called the underwriter, who's the person that nobody really talks to.

They're the ghost

people.

They're the ones that are behind under tables and hunched over and doing all

of the things that make everything happen, but nobody talks to them.

They

make or break the, uh, they make or break the transaction.

And basically what they do is they check the but it's within the confines of like

the loan limits and loan requirements.

So, uh, those are the three people you're going to become besties with.

And then after that you have, uh, you have the appraisal, which is

kind of part of that process, but it usually comes about a week or two.

Yeah.

Well, uh, a week or two later.

Appraisal, uh, comes out, uh, appraiser comes out, gives a fair

market value of the property.

Um,

we did an episode on that covered appraisals.

So feel free to go back to them.

Yeah.

Feel free to go back to that.

And then, uh, what's the final piece?

Uh, and then final piece is insurance.

So you can't close your loan without having insurance and an insurance policy.

So once we get all of these, you know, meter contingency periods that have

like deadlines on them, then Your loan officer is also going to tell you that

you need to get homeowners insurance That's when you want to start shopping

for that also and we have talked about this in the last episode We had an

entire episode about it, but getting the right insurance is going to be very very

important Uh that and title insurance.

I mean they kind of go together.

So then after you get all of those things taken care of and you're asked for a

million more documents and then other documents and then Your final everything

at the end Um, you're also again in pennsylvania, you're permitted to walk

throughs through your contract period.

So one can go to the house, do measurements or, you know, just bring

mom and dad and be like, look what I got.

Uh, you can go for whatever reason you want.

So you get one of those and you get, you know, a second one,

you can do whatever you want.

Yeah.

Um, and then your second walkthrough would be your final walkthrough.

So you can do what you want with them, but do not use that for anything

other than your final walkthrough.

So day before settlement or day or morning of, you'll go back to your property.

They'll do your walkthrough, make sure it's broom swept, make sure

everything is in good condition.

Everything is there that was supposed to be there on

the heater, the HVAC.

Yep.

Make sure the air conditioner is working, especially in July, August.

Yep.

And so that if there are any problems, there wasn't anything

left or anything like that.

You settlement doesn't go through until it's being handed over the

way that it's been promised to.

So then you do that walkthrough.

And then before we know it, you're at settlement.

So title insurance is important, guys.

You don't, you, there is a 2 percent chance that you

will ever need your title insurance policy, but it is required for all

loans in the state of Pennsylvania.

And basically all that is, is just basically someone going back,

verifying the person who's selling the house has rights to sell the house.

They don't have any kind of liens against the house.

They've paid their taxes and it basically ensures what's called clear title.

So when you get the house, you are locked and loaded and you have a.

Fresh slate to own that house without any hassle.

And I was actually talking to my uncle a couple weeks ago

and he had said when they bought their house and they actually bought it off of

my aunt's mom, they, he said that there was, they found out after he bought it,

there was a lien, like a 30, 000 lien.

Mechanics lien, like a contractor.

I don't remember which lien it was, but I was like,

the first thing I said, I said, what about your title insurance?

I said, cause that should have, that should have been cleared with title.

And if it wasn't, that's the first person you call is the title company

to see like, Hey, I'm dismissed.

And he said, I may not have known it.

It may not have been a regulation back when we bought it like 25 years ago.

I was like, buddy made it.

And I was like, Oh

yeah.

Well, if he bought a cash, he wouldn't have been required to have it.

Well,

you can buy a cash, not have title insurance.

It's not like a law, but it's still good to have.

Still good to have.

Um, so yeah, so I think that that's a good, uh, good 20 minute, uh,

rundown, you know, congratulations.

If you're listening

to this and you've just bought a house and do not panic.

Congratulations.

We've got you.

We got you.

We'll take good care of

you.

All right.

All right.

See

you guys.

Bye.