What Happens After Your Offer Is Accepted
You’ve made an offer on a Knoxville home for sale and it’s been accepted.
At this point, many buyers will go on autopilot thinking that the hard part is done. Unfortunately, that’s not always true.
After an offer has been accepted, there’s still the home inspection, the appraisal. and final loan approval. These items are still very critical in order for a sale to go through. If one of these items goes badly, it can cause the whole sale to fall apart.
In this post, we’ll take a closer look at what happens after your offer is accepted and why it matters.
Step 1: The Home Inspection
A home inspection is essential when you buy a Knoxville home. As a buyer, you’re given time to have the property inspected to ensure that you know what you’re buying.
Even if a Knoxville home is new or just a few years old, there can always be deeper issues that cannot be seen just by walking through the house. There can be bigger electrical, plumbing, or foundation issues. A licensed home inspector can help identify any potential issues that can go unseen by a potential buyer.
Since a home inspection can detect major issues in a home, a home inspection can make or break a deal. If there are major issues, this is where a deal can fall apart.
A buyer may walk away or a seller may refuse to complete repairs. Regardless, this is why the home inspection is a critical hurdle that must be cleared prior to closing.
Step 2: The Appraisal
The appraisal is another important item after your offer gets accepted. An appraisal is completed by a lender to ensure a property’s value. A lender doesn’t want to loan more money than they need to, which is why an appraisal is completed. Unfortunately, there are times where a home doesn’t appraise.
An appraisal can come in too low on a Knoxville home for a few reasons including:
- multiple offers that cause the price to be artificially inflated
- overpricing by the seller
- an inexperienced appraiser
When an appraisal comes in too low, there are a few options. One thing that can be done is the seller can lower the price of the home. Another thing that can be done is that the buyer can make up the difference in cash, if they have the funds for a larger down payment. Or, another appraisal can be ordered in hopes that the next appraisal will come in higher. If none of these options work, the deal will fall apart.
Step 3: Final Loan Approval
Finally, after an offer is approved, you still need to get final loan approval. A pre-approval isn’t the same as final approval and there is a lot that can happen during the loan approval process.
There are a few things that can hurt your loan approval:
- making changes to your credit
- quitting your job
- buying something new on credit, like a car or a boat
- spending large sums of money
During the loan process, it’s important that you’re careful. Talk with your loan officer to make sure what things you should and shouldn’t do during the process. This will prevent you from making a critical mistake.
Bottom Line: Nothing Is Final Until It’s Final
An offer isn’t the end of a real estate transaction. The appraisal, home inspection, and final loan approval are all critical steps to getting to closing. As a buyer, it’s important that you don’t skip any critical steps to get to closing.
Are you thinking about selling your Knoxville home this year? Please let us know if there is anyway that Knoxville Home Team can assist you. Rick can be reached at 865-696-9002 or via email at [email protected]. Kati can be reached at [email protected].
