Sold - Someone Wants To Buy Your House

It's happened! Someone wants to buy your house. So what should you do now?

The first thing is to be quite specific over what is to be included in the agreed purchase price. Just the building or are carpets included, for example? Is some furniture to remain? Is some remedial work required to be completed first?

When this has been sorted, you need to be updated by the buyer over how quickly they expect to complete their purchase.

During your discussions with them when you showed them your house, you will have obtained some information about the status of their own house sale.

Or, if they were buying without depending on a sale of their own, whether they had the cash to buy, or were awaiting or had already received, confirmation of mortgage finance. Then you need to get the legal process in motion.

When you have a buyer for your home, you need to ensure that all the contractual documentation is processed correctly, in order to prevent any complications later on. So give serious consideration to using the services of a Real Estate Attorney.

The web sites that provide online listing services, can also provide you with legal forms and documents for your own state, but you still need to ensure that they have been completed and filed properly. A Real Estate Attorney working on your sale will ensure that this is the case.

When the sale gets underway, you then need to find a new house of your own to live in. You may have been looking all the time you were selling your own home, but if not, now's the time to start.

When the day approaches for you to move out and the new owner to move in, you will face one of several possible situations.

• You will have either managed to time the completion of your sale with the completion of the purchase of your new home, and be able to move to your new home at once. Or:
  
  
• You will have to move your furniture and possessions into storage until you find a new home.

Whatever position you are in, it will be time to plan your move out. Until you have actually exchanged contracts with the buyer, there is no point in committing yourself to a moving out day. That can be mutually agreed when the ink is dry on your contracts and there's no going back!