To my friend in MI...
I know that the reason the bank pushed back our close date was because there is a penalty fee off $100 plus $30/day if we don't close by our close date IF its OUR fault. But the way I understand it, is if its their fault, we just have to eat it! Sounds like you have the 10 day period from when the contract is signed, where as our is an actual date. (the 19) This is our second house we have bought, but our first house was back east and I am finding things are a little different out here. Nor did I deal with a bank owned prop back east, so this is all new and a little confusing to me! Good luck to you.

I spoke with my agent today, and we are just gonna move ahead and start inspections. Kinda scary that we can't open escrow yet though. The bank wanted to pick the title company, and has yet to let us know who! We did sign an AS IS addendum. Which brings amother question to mind....we are going FHA and I have always understood FHA to have tighter regulations/guidlines. I was under the impression that with FHA you had to have the inspections done by a licenced contractor. now that we signed the AS-IS addendum, I am being told it does not have to be a licenced contractor, and I don't HAVE to have one done (kinda like if we went conventional - its optional). And the only reason I bring that up, is I have a close friend that is a contractor, and have been doing it for 50 years, but he is not licenced anymore. I totally trust that he can do an inspection for us, and may even be a little more honest with me since he is a friend. My understanding is that even if we do find anything (major) wrong, we can't fix it until after closing anyway. Does anyone know what the deal is with this?? THANKS

Rebecca,
Have you signd an addendum?
Has your agent opened escrow?
Yes it takes time for the Bank to get it`s paper work signd ( you will need that to close), however when your time is ticking, you know it.

Rebecca - if I can add to your question - we are in a similar situation. We accepted the banks counter nearly 2 weeks ago now and have heard nothing! We requested the customary 10 days for inspection, but also requested to close by the 21st of this month! We too are ready to move on with inspection and getting the mortgage paperwork in order, but the house has been winterized and the listing agent is supposed to coordinate getting the utilities turned on for inspection. Without hearing anything from them or the bank - we are in a holding pattern (going on 12 days now).

This scenario is very typical for a REO transaction. I've already been 45 days into escrow before ever receiving the sign contract back from the bank (seller).

What does the listing agent have to say about your purchase? The listing agent should know or have some idea of how the seller operates.

Also, make sure all the utilities are on at the property prior to making an appointment to do an inspection. It would be a shame to have the inspector come out to the property and not be able to inspect the home completely, or worse, charge you for a second trip when the utilities are turned on.

I would open escrow and get going on the inspection, but to be sure, have your agent contact the listing agent to confirm.

Thanks, to clear things up, I did go back and look at the dates. On the original offer, it did state 10 days after contract acceptance, and on the counter offer sent from bank, it says May 19, which would have been the original 10 day period. After reading other peoples questions/answers, I am concerned that since we have not heard back from bank or their agent since we accepted their counter, if we just go ahead and start the inspections, and then some how they say we are NOT in contract, or somehow have made an agreement with some other party, we'd be out that time and money. We have not received anything from the bank stating we are now in contract, and I believe my lender needs that to order the appraisals,etc.
I expected a bank owed property to take a bit longer, but it is being sold AS IS with no repairs, which thankfully does not need anything major (that we can see without in depth inspection) but they are offering a $1500 buyer incentive towards cosmetic repairs (carpeting). From what their agent told us when we put in an offer, the seller was ready to go. In the counter, they did push back the close date from march 29 to "on or before june 20" incase we did get hung up we would not have penalties. Should I and can I move forward without having a signed contract in my hands?

Hi Rebbecca:

You can just click the Answer the Question button and put in your update.

Sounds like the date in question is a hard day 19th instead something like 10 days after open escrow. It also sounds from your email that you have agreed on the banks counter offer, so now you are in escrow and have only 6 days to perform the inspection. .

Either way, an offer on a bank owned property is quite different from regular offers. Banks takes longer to respond and once they respond, they want you to close or respond right away. They don't want to drag thing out.

Often times, they have their own contracts which super cedes everything else, so you have to read that contract very carefully. They usually give you a certain number of days to do inspection and close, and if you don’t close In time, you might encounter penalties. I am not sure countering dates back will work with bank owned properties, you really have to read their contracts carefully (sorry, not much help here I realize, but it’s difficult to do without knowing the exact contract you signed).

Luckily, the market is slow, which means you should be able to get inspection done and inspection report written and review way before 6 days if you have an efficient Realtor with good inspector working for you.

Since banks most likely will not give you credit back for repairs, you will probably be doing the inspection to find out if there is major problems, right? If not, you are fine, if yes, you might want to pull out.

I'd hurry up and get an inspection - your Realtor should have a few to introduce you to. Use that and get going. And if you cant' get it done in 6 days, you just won't remove the contingency and then negotiate extending the date further.

Sylvia

Work with your agent on this to coordinate the next steps. He/she should be in touch with the sellers or their agent and open escrow if the contract and counter is signed by both parties.

We did not counter back, we accepted THEIR offer, the day we received it. Should we have put a date on THEIR counter to get back to us?

Hi Rebbecca:

When you countered back, did you give them a time frame to answers? If you did and that date have expired before you hear back from the sellers, then you do not have a contract.

However, if they counter back, you want make sure you counter them back with an up-to-date expiration date and also with a new inspection contingency removal period which accounts for the delay - this is if the date of contingency removal is a specific date instead of so many days after getting into escrow, then you will need to counter with a new specific contingency removal date that works for you.

Best,
Sylvia

If your offer had an expiration date, which it should you don't need to do anything. After the offer is expired (not delivered to you) you are not in contract. Also you may look at the dates on the contract usually the inspection period starts the day of acceptance. That is the day the offer is signed and a copy given to you. So, if written correctly you should have 10 days after that event. Read your Offer to Purchase, if you wrote it on a standard Arizona Association of Realtor’s contract it should be very easy to discern.