Congratulations, we’re so happy for you! Once we’ve verbally accepted an offer, both parties will sign the offer. Once that happens, we’ll send a copy of the executed contract to your title company so that they can get to work on the abstract review and closing documents.
In the meantime, within 48 hours of the contract being signed, the buyer is required to drop off his or her first earnest money check with our brokerage or an agreed upon title company. This is essentially a good faith payment showing the buyer is serious about moving forward. The earnest money will be credited towards the buyer’s down payment at closing. Once the earnest money is dropped off we will notify you. Our office holds on to the payment simply because our office can act as an unbiased 3rd party should a dispute come up between the buyer and seller and the buyer asks for the earnest money to be returned.
Once the earnest money is received, we will mark the property as pending in the MLS and cancel any future showings. We are then officially in the inspection time period which usually takes between 5 – 10 business days (see your contract for the exact number of days).