Congratulations! You’ve just purchased your first home! But it’s not time to move in, just yet. Once again your Realtor is a great asset in the escrow process when purchasing a home in Long Beach, coordinating the home seller and their agent with the neutral third party, the escrow company. It’s a good idea to understand the escrow process before you begin, escrow involves detailed, picky and often overlapping steps. In finalizing the sale the escrow holders function as a neutral third party is to hold on to, and exchange, deeds and money, pay off existing loans, record deeds, prorate the property tax payment, and help with other transfer details. To begin this process your agent will have your earnest money deposited into an escrow account, which is an organization legally empowered to act as an escrow agent. Title officers, of which your Realtor has a good relationship with can answer questions about title and preliminary title on any home for sale in Long Beach, for advise in which way to hold title you should consult with an attorney. A few days before escrow is ready to close the buyer will want to make a final walk though to make sure any repairs that were called for are completed and just a last check to see if things are the same as when you first feel in love with the home. Now monies have been exchanged, new deeds are prepared and every thing is in order the title company is instructed to take your deed to be recorded to the county recorders office and when confirmation is relayed to escrow you can pick up your keys!

Inspecting Long Beach Homes

As a future homeowner in the city of Long Beach a thorough home inspection is recommended, and is almost mandatory. Your buyer’s agent is an excellent resource for a licensed inspector. The inspection should cover the property from top to bottom; this however is at the buyer’s expense. The inspector will examine the general conditions of the site, such as drainage, retaining walls, fences, and driveways; the integrity of the structure and the foundation; the condition of the roof, exterior and interior paint, doors and windows, plumbing, electrical and heating systems. Your Long Beach Realtor will accompany the inspector and its recommended you do the same so you can receive information first hand about maintenance and preservation of the your new home in Long Beach and answer any questions you may have. He should point out any problems that may need attention and tell you which are important and which are minor. The final product of the inspection should be a detailed written report, which you can keep for future reference. It should identify which items are in good condition, and which need repair or replacement. Other disclosures that are required would be natural hazards, earth- quake and lead based paint to name a few. Keep in mind that after evaluating this information in the first seventeen days after the start of escrow, if anything is unsatisfactory you have the right to decline to proceed with your purchase and have your deposit returned to move on to the next home for sale in Long Beach.

Long Beach Real Estate Title Reports and Title Insurance

Title insurance is a guarantee that you are getting something for your money when you purchase your real property in Long Beach. Title insurance guarantees the ownership of the property you are buying is just as it is stated in recorded documents. When you buy any home for sale, in Long Beach you expect to acquire use of the property as well as its “title” or legal ownership, and you want to be absolutely certain that the owner had clear title to it in the first place and consequently was legally entitled to sell it to you. Title insurance protects the buyer and lender involved in a real property transaction against incompetent past action, clerical errors, someone having signed off an earlier deed, incorrect martial status, undisclosed heirs, improper interpretation of wills, signing by anyone without authority, a minor’s signing, or possible forgery in the entire past chain of title signatures.

Mike Pugh, Broker Associate

Re/Max College Park