This blog post outlines the entire home selling process in Illinois. As your Realtors we make sure these milestones are being met on time and negotiated to your favor.
At the listing appointment we will answer any questions, explain the home selling process, fill out the listing paperwork, collect detailed information about your home, and complete a pre-listing walk through of your home to provide recommendations on any repairs or touch-ups that would be good to complete before your listing goes live.
The listing paperwork consists of:
Once you are ready for showings to start, we click the “submit” button in the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) for your listing to go live on the MLS. Your listing will syndicate out to all the main outlets such as Zillow, Redfin, Trulia, Homes.com, all the main brokerage websites, and MANY more outlets.
The Realtor industry uses an application called ShowingTime that Realtors use to request permission to show a listing. When our clients or another agent’s buyer client wants to tour your home, the agents will submit the showing request in ShowingTime. ShowingTime has an automation that we configure which will then text, call, or email you to approve the showing request. ShowingTime has a client app that will show all your scheduled showings, your showing history, and has an agent view for us as your agents see all the showing requests, approvals, and showing history. We reach out to the other showing agents to collect feedback of what their buyer clients thought about your home, and we provide that feedback to you.
Offers will be submitted by the buyers agents to us via email, we forward you a copy of the offer via email as soon as we receive the offer, and then (the same day) we review the offer in detail, vet the offer, and forward the offers to you with a summary of the offer. After reviewing the offer we call you to discuss the offers and discuss next steps. Negotiations may ensue until the purchase offer is agreeable to both the buyer and seller.
Things to consider when reviewing offers:
The standard Illinois real estate purchase contract requires that the buyer submit the earnest money within 3 business days of acceptance of the offer. The buyers submits the earnest money to the seller’s attorney to be held in the attorney’s escrow account. These funds will be kept by the seller’s attorney and then used towards the buyer’s closing costs (or down payment).
Once you accept an offer we then send the contract to the buyer’s lender, the buyer’s attorney, and the seller’s attorney for processing.
Lender: After acceptance of offer, the buyer has to complete the full mortgage application, which the lender then submits the full mortgage application to the underwriting department for detailed review.
Attorneys: The attorneys will review the contract and prepare an “attorney review letter” which modifies the contract as the attorneys see fit. This attorney review can go back and forth until both attorneys and the buyer and seller are satsified with all of the terms.
Title Company: The seller’s attorney typically selects which title company will prepare the title search, prepare title insurance, and facilitate the closing. The seller’s attorney will provide the title company the purchase contract for the title company to begin the closing paperwork.
The Illinois standard purchase contract requires that the buyer complete the home inspection within 10 business days, however the inspection usaully happens much faster than that – usaully within 5 to 7 calendar days.
The inspection is attended by the buyer’s agent, the inspector, and the buyers themselves attend about 50% of the time. The inspector will prepare a detailed inspection report and provide the report to the buyer. The buyer will review the inspection report with their agent and/or attorney to draft a list of repairs they are requesting the seller to complete, and then any repair requests will submitted from the buyer’s attorney to the seller’s attorney. The seller’s attorney will then forward the inspection requests to the seller and the seller’s agent, and then then seller, seller’s agent, and the seller will confer to determine how to respond to the repair requests.
The inspection repair request often becomes a negotiation. The repair requests are negotiated until all parties are in agreement, then both the buyer and seller (or their attorneys on their behalf) will sign the agreed to repair agreement. If the buyer and seller cannot come to an agreement on the scope of repairs, then the attorneys will draft a “mutual release” which cancels the contract and the buyer receives their earnest money back.
Pre-Closing is generally finishing everything that got set in motion on the above steps, and a handful of new things:
Buyer’s Financing: The lender’s underwriting department reviews the buyer’s full mortgage application and then will provide a list of conditions for the buyer to clear before the lender can approve the loan. Examples of these conditions include: buyer getting a homeowners insurance invoice for the lender to then pay at closing so that the home has insurance, updated bank statements, and verification of employment. Once the underwriting department approves the loan, then the lender will issue the “Clear To Close” (CTC.). The lender is required to send to the buyer the “Closing Disclosure” which shows the buyer what the amounts are for the all the closing fees and pre-paids.
Local Municipalty Pre-Sale Coordination: Some communities have a pre-sale inspection, or other pre-sale requirements. Compliance with these processes are required before the closing can be scheduled.
State and County Transfer Stamp Fees: All property sales in Illinois are subject to a state of Illinois transfer stamp fee, most Illinois counties have a transfer stamp fee, and many Illinois communities also have a transfer stam fee. The seller’s attorney will coordinate payment of these fees on your behalf, and these fees will be paid for from closing proceeds (ie they do not have to be paid before closing.)
Title Work: The attorneys and title company coordinate to get the closing paperwork assembled. The seller’s attorney typically prepares the deed, the title company completes the title search to confirm there are no leins on the property, the title company will coordinate payoff of any loans on the property, the title company will prepare the title insurance. The title company, lender, and attorneys also coordinate to make sure all the fees and pre-paids are correct.
Wiring Funds: The closing funds are received and distributed by the title company. The buyer will wire their closing funds to the title company’s escrow account, the seller will provide their bank wiring instructions to the seller’s attorney to coordinate wiring of the sale proceeds to the seller’s bank account.
Survey: The standard Illinois real estate contract requires that the seller will provide a staked survey of the property corners by a licensed surveyor. The seller’s attorney will usaully coordinate the survey with the attorney’s preferred surveyor (which they usaully get discounted prices from) and payment for the survey is paid from closing proceeds.
Utilities: The utilities need to be transferred from the seller’s name to the buyer’s name. The seller would contact the local municipalty no less than five business days before the closing to order the final water bill and pay that bill the day of closing. The seller would contact the gas and electric companies to end service for the day after closing. The buyer does the reverse of this where they contact the local municipality and the gas and electric company to setup accounts so that service is continued from the seller to the buyer.
Repairs: Seller to confirm that all agreed repairs are completed. Receipts for any contractor work completed can be provided to the seller’s agent or attorney, which will then be forwarded to the buyer side.
Final Walk Through: The buyer’s agent will typically schedule a final walk through of the home either the day before, or an hour or two before the closing. The point of the final walk through is for the buyer to confrim that the home is in the condition that they last saw the home, and to confirm that any repairs were completed.
Scheduling Of The Closing: Once the lender issues the Clear To Close, then the buyer’s agent and seller’s agent will coordinate with the buyer and seller to schedule a date, time, and location for the closing. In Illinois the seller typically signs closing documents in advance of the closing with their attorney, and does not then need to attend closing. It is recommended that the sellers not attend closing unless there is special reason to attend.
Settlement Statement: The title company, lender, and both attorneys coordinate to generate the “Settlement Statement”, which is a document that shows all of the debits and credit to the buyer and seller. This document includes all of the fees and pre-paids which include: property tax prorations, homewowner insurance, lender fees, Realtor fees, closing fees, title fees, mortgage and lien payoffs, survey fee, home warranty, etc.
Seller Sign Closing Documents at Attorney’s Office: In Illinois the seller typically signs closing documents in advance of the closing with their attorney, and does not then need to attend closing. It is recommended that the sellers not attend closing unless there is special reason to attend.
Now that all the other steps have been completed, the closing should be a pretty uneventful event. Usaully at the the closing is just the buyer, the buyer’s attorney, and the title company representative. The seller usaully signs the closing documents in advance and therefore does not need to attend the closing. At the closing the buyer will sign the mortgage documents, then the title agents will scan the mortgage documents to the lender for the lender to review and then dispurse the purchase funds to the title company. The title company will then take those funds and allocate them to pay the fees listed on the settlement statement. The title company will also coordinate with the county recorder’s office to have the deed recorded (the deed is the document that tranfers ownership of the property from the seller to the buyer.)
Post Closing Tasks Include:
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