Buyer (Tenant) Order of Events From Showing to Closing:
Appointment with Buyer & Agent-Evaluate Buyer’s wants & needs.
Ensure that Buyer is pre-qualified with a mortgage consultant, if not give the Buyer 3 names & phone numbers of mortgage consultants.
Analyze Buyer’s segment-make sure that there is inventory that matches Buyer’s needs.
Set up a Matrix search to find inventory that matches Buyer’s needs, either as an auto-email or Concierge.
Prepare Segment-specific Comparative Market Value Analysis (CMA). Teach your buyer the values in their desired market segment.
Sign Exclusive Representation Agreement & Agency Disclosure Form & Lead Paint Disclosure Form (if applicable), Covid-19 Disclosure Form, & Fair Housing Form.
Look at properties.
Choose a property to buy.
Get all information on property, including correct taxes (from the Receiver of Taxes), legal square footage (from the Assessor), Certificates of Occupancy (from the Building Department), check to see if there is a buried oil tank on the property, get the septic drawing & information from the Board of Health (if applicable-For Westchester County: https://health.westchestergov.com/foil-request), etc.
Prepare office file with all paperwork (see GLR website’s list of file requirements).
Prepare property-specific Comparative Market Value Analysis (CMA).
Obtain pre-approval letter.
Make offer-must be in writing & include a pre-approval letter in the exact amount of the offer (this is important). (see Offer Sheet in Our Forms). Or if cash then please provide Proof of Funds (make sure the account number is blacked out). Buyers are permitted to make offers on multiple properties at the same time. Making an offer is not binding. Buyers can only sign 1 Contract at a time though.
Agents are not permitted to ask prospective tenants about how much they earn or what their salary & net worth is. You are permitted to ask where the money will come from to pay the rent & then, based on the tenant’s answer, you are permitted to provide proof of that source & amount to the landlord/listing agent.
For a rental, obtain a Credit Report & Background Check for your tenant. You should use the Credit Report Authorization Form on our Forms page to get permission from the tenant. You’ll need the tenant’s: name, address, DOB, & SSN. You can use MyRental, provided by CoreLogic on HGAR’s website (https://myrental.net/m/hgmls). You can also use a free Credit Reporting Agency like: CreditKarma or FreeCreditReport.com, etc.
One of the companies we use a lot for Credit Reporting is called National Tenant Network or NTN. You can go to the following website: https://secure2.ntnonline.com/securelease/applicantdetails.cfm?propcode=GLR631&unit=15931. The tenant should pay with their cc. For the NTN Forms call them: 800-422-8299 x4 or x0.
Credit Report Handling Policy: Request a credit report when you have an Accepted Offer. Do not provide the Credit Report to anyone, not even the landlord nor the Listing Agent. Only the score & only with prior signed authorization from the tenant. If a tenant has a voucher that offers to pay 100% of the rent then obtaining a credit report is illegal & should not proceed. If the voucher is less than 100%, you should still provide a Credit Report. If the Landlord rejects a prospective Tenant based on their Credit Score then the agent & tenant should move on to another property. Don’t every use the term: “rejected” but rather use the term “not qualified.”
Negotiate-must be in writing.
Receive Acceptable Offer-must be in writing.
Prepare Memorandum of Agreement & distribute to all the parties-Buyer’s agent sends buyer’s side info to Listing agent so Listing agent can prepare the Memorandum of Agreement on their letterhead. Be sure to include Broker’s & Agent’s Unique ID#.
Send a copy of the Memorandum of Agreement to: Michael Vanacoro, Hudson United Title Services, [email protected] so he can start working with the Buyer’s Attorney on the Title.
Schedule buyer’s inspection (if necessary). Recommend Thomas Leonard if possible, JT Home Inspections, C-914-222-1451.
Seller’s attorney writes the Contract & sends it to Buyer’s attorney.
Buyers sign the Contract & prepare Earnest Money Check & Buyer’s attorney sends to Seller’s attorney.
Contracts fully executed-means that both sides have signed the Contract & the earnest money check has cleared & both attorneys have received a copy of the Contract.
Listing Agent changes MLS status to: Contract-print out for the file.
Schedule Bank appraisal.
Receive Buyer’s Commitment Letter.
Underwriting.
Schedule Closing.
Send Commission Invoice to Seller’s Attorney.
In the morning of the Closing (or the day before), do a walk-through of the property. This is important to make sure the Sellers left it as the Buyers expected. It’s important to wear your detective hat when you are doing a walk-through, because it’s your last chance to renegotiate derogatory items. Walk around the house & carefully inspect what you see. Walk through the inside, going into every room & area, carefully observing. If anything can be opened or closed or turned on or off, do it & double check that it works properly. Make sure nothing is broken. If there is any debris left by the Seller or broken items, take a photo with your cell phone & bring it to the closing. It should be brought to the Buyer’s Attorney’s attention for re-negotiation. Usually it’s easy to resolve these issues.
Buyer should contact all utilities including: Electric, Cable, Oil/Propane, etc. to transfer billing as of the date of the Closing. You do not want these utilities turned off on the date of the Closing. Sometimes the Buyer & the Seller can get on the phone together with the utility & transfer the ownership. It’s a good idea to get a final reading of any meters during the final walk-through. Take a photo of the meter reading with your cell phone. Make sure you can read the numbers.
Go to Closing, get any additional paperwork signed (if necessary), pick up commission check, bring to office. Take a copy of the HUD Document & put it in the file so you can send it to the Buyer after January 1 for their taxes.
Listing Agent changes MLS status to: Sold-print for file.
Bring completed file to office & get paid!
***Data Privacy Guidelines: Agents realize that when they are working with private information from buyers or tenants that they maintain the privacy of that information. It should stay in our deal file & not be shared.
***Document & Disposal Guideline Policy: GLR maintains our deal files securely for at least 7 years & after that we can shred the documents, however to date we have maintained all our deal files securely.
***Data Breach Policy & Procedure: To date GLR does not have a Data Breach Policy.