If you want to spend the few hundred thousand dollars in your bank or investment account, we will need a letter demonstrating proof of funds.
If you are wanting to finance your home purchase and
do not have a relationship with a mortgage broker you trust
Taking the search into your own hands with online tools puts you neck in neck to all the buyers seeking to live in your dream home.
With your letter demonstrating proof of funds, or a letter of pre- qualification in hand, lets get together for a chat about your dream home. We have several questions to ask to fully understand your needs, goal and desires.
We find special homes for special people everyday.
I need to buy and sell a home at the same time in Central Florida. Can I do that with White Brick Real Estate?
Yes! We’re thrilled to present our Home Trade-In Program to provide customers with the option to sell and also purchase their new home at the same time. Here’s how it works:
- We’ll connect you with your dedicated White Brick team. They will work with you to review the value of your house, compare your selling options, and coordinate your sale and purchase.
- Request an Express Cash Offer and compare your selling options. Choose an Express Cash Offer or list your property (to maximize your value) on your current house.
- Once you know how much you can afford, it’s time to find the perfect home! Use our App to browse homes and visit them on your schedule.
- When you’re ready to make an offer, you can do it with as much or as little support as you want. Start an offer right from our website and work with a White Brick trade-in experience team to complete your sale.
- Once you’ve found your next home, you can line up your sale close date, with the date you’ll buy your new home, and skip the double-moves, double-mortgages, and storage units. Our trade-in program comes with an optional three-day complimentary Late Checkout to give you extra time to move your belongings into your new home.
The benefits of our Home Trade-In Program for sellers means you do not have to worry for months about the uncertainty of your move. When it comes to buying, it means you can self-tour White Brick represented homes online, or schedule on-demand tours for non-White Brick Represented homes on your schedule, find the perfect one and easily make an offer with on-demand support from a top local agent when you need it. The best part is that White Brick Real Estate will help you coordinate your closing dates so you don’t have to pay two mortgages or move twice. You can choose to get a three-day Late Checkout to give you extra time to move your belongings into your new home, plus, we can help you save thousands by trading- in your house.
To learn more, email us at Sales@WhiteBrickRe.com
Can I trade-in my home if I am working with a home builder?
Yes, you can! We have the largest network of partnerships with major homebuilders, like Lennar and Toll Brothers. Trading-in your home with White Brick allows a smooth transition into your new home.
Find more info about trading in with home builders email us at Sales@WhiteBrickRE.com
How does the money I get back at closing affect my loan?
It is good to know where things stand before you get the ball rolling. We recommend that buyers ask their lenders how they typically handle financial transactions involving buyers getting money back at closing.
After spending time viewing quality listings, and obsessively fiddling with mortgage payment calculators, you’ve finally found the house you want to share life with.Together you and your White Brick real estate consultant created your offer. You proposed to the perfect dollar amount and closing terms.
Maybe you even included a personal letter to show you are really committed the house. We submitted the offer.
What can you expect next now?
When the offer proposal is submitted you can expect one of three things.
Your offer is accepted, your offer is rejected, or the seller counters your offer
The Seller can flat-out reject your proposal
Your White Brick consultant will reach out to the sellers agent to understand why the offer was rejected.
Here are potential reasons:
Your offer was in competition with another suitor/buyer and their proposal was more attractive to the Seller’s desires
There was too large a gap between what you want and what the seller wants
If your offer flat out rejected, move on.
The Seller can counter your offer
If the seller counters your offer technically this is a rejection of your proposal, but you’re still in the game! It’s like asking your favorite girl out for dinner on Friday and she suggests Saturday instead. You can either accept the Seller’s counter offer, or present another offer to see if there are terms you are both happy with. This is not like other purchases; this is not a simple negotiation.
It is naive to reply to a seller’s counter offer with thoughts of ” splitting the difference”. After all, like in our dinner date example, if your girl is not available Friday, but offers you Saturday, asking to see her 30 minutes later on Friday may not be your best bet if you really want to see her. Taking too long to reply allows someone else to make a proposal, or can make the Seller unmotivated to negotiate with you. Negotiations can go back and forth until an agreement is reached, or one of you decides to walk away.
A contract for sale and purchase is more than the purchase price, there are many terms to agree upon, and usually the Buyer or Seller have key terms that are most important to them. Your White Brick consultant has experience navigating counter offers. The best negotiations are often accomplished by allowing the Seller to feel there is a win-win, not a compromise.
Your offer can be accepted
Once you reach the point of an accepted offer, things really get exciting.
Now is the time expediantly satisfy all contingencies in your contract and move forward to your closing. Though the process is slightly different in every state, this is what your punch list should look like.
1. Get your financing in order. Hopefully you went into the home-buying process with a pre-approval for a mortgage. Now is the time to move forward with your lender on the amount of money you need to buy the house. Work with your mortgage broker to put together the mountain of paperwork most lenders need to see before giving you the thumbs-up. Your lender will require an appraisal by a licensed appraiser as part of this process, and will usually let you know when that needs to happen.
2. Have the home inspected. An inspection isn’t required by most lenders, but your White Brick consultant recommends it. The timeline for inspections is written into your contact. Depending on the terms of your contract and what the inspector turns up, you might ask the seller to make some fixes, ask for a concession, or even just walk away.
3. Find homeowners insurance. Almost every lender will require you to have signed up for homeowners insurance before approving your loan. Shop around and don’t be afraid to negotiate. You can save money by bundling your homeowners insurance with any other kind of insurance you have, like auto insurance.
4. Move toward closing. While all of this is happening, your lender will be preparing your loan. The title company will want to see a survey, and if a recent one doesn’t exist, you’ll have to have one done.
During this period, most of the work happens behind the scenes, with someone on your team—real estate agent, lawyer, lender, title agent—popping up to ask for a document here and there. Your primary job is make sure you have your down payment ready. Don’t make any big purchases, because that can mess with your credit.
When everybody gives the green light and your loan is approved, it’s time to head to the closing table and officially buy your home. You’ll do a final walk-through of the property a day or two before closing to ensure nothing has been damaged and that all changes specified in the contract were completed. Sign on the dotted line, and you’re done! Now you can focus all your energy on moving into your new home
.
YEAH! “Congratulations your offer was accepted! ” are sweet words.
Someone said ” Yes” to your proposal and they are willing to give you time to get to know the house and decide if you’ll live happily in it .
Now that you’ve reach this point, just like preparing for a wedding, things really get exciting.
Now is the time expediantly satisfy all contingencies in your contract and move forward to your closing.
Though the process is slightly different in every state, this is what your punch list ( which we will go over in greater detail) will look like this in Florida:
1. Get your financing in order. Your White Brick Real Estate Relationship Consultant started you off right with a proof of funds letter, a letter of pre-approval, or maybe both before you started looking at properties. Now is the time to move forward with your lender on the amount of money you need to buy this house. Honestly, your mortgage broker will need a mountain of paperwork , just like all lenders. They need you to, and your contract requires you to diligently work to provide everything that is requested in a very timely manner, so they will give you the thumbs-up. Your lender will require an appraisal by a licensed appraiser as part of this process, and will let you know when that needs to happen.
2. Have the home inspected. An inspection isn’t required by most lenders, but your White Brick consultant recommends it. The timeline for inspections is written into your contact. Depending on the terms of your contract and what the inspector turns up, you might ask the seller to make some fixes, ask for a concession, or even just walk away.
3. Find homeowners insurance. Almost every lender will require you to have signed up for homeowners insurance before approving your loan. Shop around and don’t be afraid to negotiate. You can save money by bundling your homeowners insurance with any other kind of insurance you have, like auto insurance.
4. Move toward closing. While all of this is happening, your lender will be preparing your loan. The title company will want to see a survey, and if a recent one doesn’t exist, you’ll have to have one done.
During this period, most of the work happens behind the scenes, with someone on your team—real estate agent, lawyer, lender, title agent—popping up to ask for a document here and there. Your primary job is make sure you have your down payment ready. Don’t make any big purchases, because that can mess with your credit.
When everybody gives the green light and your loan is approved, it’s time to head to the closing table and officially buy your home. You’ll do a final walk-through of the property a day or two before closing to ensure nothing has been damaged and that all changes specified in the contract were completed. Sign on the dotted line, and you’re done! Now you can focus all your energy on moving into your new home.
An appraisal provides valuable information for the buyer and the seller, but the appraiser’s primary mission is to protect the lender. Lenders don’t want to own overpriced property and that’s why the appraisal takes place before the lender grants final approval of the buyer’s loan. Each property is unique, and the appraiser relies on his or her general expertise and specific research to arrive at an opinion of value.
Federal law requires states to establish minimum standards and licensing practices for real estate appraisers. Appraisers use a variety of factors in their decision making. They weigh the location of the home, its proximity to desirable schools and other public facilities, the size of the lot, the size and condition of the home itself and recent sales prices of comparable properties, among other factors. Appraisers aren’t interested in whether or not the house is clean but they do notice signs of neglect such as cracked walls, chipped paint, broken windows, torn carpets, damaging flooring, and inoperable appliances.
If you are applying for a mortgage that will be insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), the appraiser must survey the physical condition of the home and disclose potential problems to the buyer. No such obligation exists for conventional (non-FHA) mortgages.
If a home receives an appraisal lower than the purchase price there are some ways the purchase can still go through. The seller can reduce the purchase price, the buyer could make a bigger down payment, or if it’s a question of needed repairs, a separate escrow account can be set up to fund those repairs.
Your White Brick Real Estate Relationship Consultant will go over the appraisal with you in greater detail.
With all the excitement you have had with purchasing a new home, it’s easy to forget some important tasks. Plus, certain things are best done while the house is still vacant, long before your boxes and furniture are parked in the place. Put these things off, and it becomes all the harder to tackle them later. Here is a helpful list of all the things to do before moving into your new home.
Your White Brick Real Estate Relationship Consultant will be providing you with a list of the utility suppliers for your new home. When you have your loan approval, reach out to each of them to schedule for the utility to be turned on in your name effective on the date of closing.
2. Order an energy audit
One of the best ways to cut your energy bill is to order a home energy audit.An energy audit is a professional assessment of your new home’s overall energy performance. This will show you how to make your house more energy-efficient (think insulating the attic, weatherstripping windows, sealing air leaks in crawl spaces).For convenience, it’s best to have one done and make related repairs before moving in. A home energy audit costs, on average, about $215 to $600, but some utility companies will do them for free.
3. Do a deep clean
It’s never easier to do a deep clean than when the house is empty. A cleaning service costs around $150-$300. Your White Brick Consultant can make recommendations to companies that other clients have had experience with if you do not want to clean the home yourself.
4. Change the locks
This is a basic safety measure; however,it can’t be done until after closing
5. Test smoke and carbon monoxide detectors
Your home inspect should have tested these, but you never know what can happen before you move in. Make sure these are functioning properly to protect your new home from fires and other emergencies. Buy fire extinguishers. Get one for every level of your home, make sure you know how to use it, and plan an escape route in the event of a fire.
6. Set up the alarm system
If the home already has a security system installed, call the provider to confirm that service is set up. If the home does not have a security system in place, or if you desire a new one, your White Brick Consultant can recommend companies that may be of value to you.
7. Tackle major home renovations or repairs
The last thing you want to do is have to tiptoe around a construction zone after you move in. So, if you want to repaint the home, resand floors, or make any other renovations, do them in advance. These projects are best done when the house is empty and usually don’t happen once the furniture shows up. And remember, you have the right to bring in vendors for quotes, as part of the home inspection process, but work cannot start until you sign have completed the sale. Your White Brick Consultant can make recommendations to companies that other clients have had experience with.
8. Get a home warranty
Imagine waking up one morning to a busted boiler or leaking washer in your brand-new home. A home warranty covers the cost of repairing many home appliances—and basic coverage starts at only about $450.
9. Get to know your new house
Find the circuit breaker box and main water shut-off valve are before moving in, so you know how to turn off the electricity or water in an emergency. Also, consider labeling your home’s electrical panel.
10. Childproof the home
Have kids? Every year, millions of children are hospitalized because of accidents around the home, according to Safe Kids Worldwide. So, before your bundle of joy starts toddling around the house, take steps to fully childproof your new home.
11. Forward your mail
Don’t forget to update your address with the United States Postal Service. (Visit the Official Postal Service Change of Address website.) The postal service charges a fee to verify your identity when changing your address online, so you’ll need a credit or debit card. The postal service will stop forwarding periodicals to your new address 60 days after you move, so alert magazines and newspapers that you’ve moved.
12. Update your address
Alert your credit card companies, banks, or other financial institutions, and change your drivers license to the new address. Also, if you frequently buy anything from a website, you can avoid a future headache by updating your profile with your new shipping and / or billing address.
The transaction went super smooth from start to finish.