So what is a final walk through before closing and why should you do one? I’ve got some buyers who are signing papers out of town today. I’m doing their final walkthrough for them. We’re going to tell you all about it. This is Eric Sztanyo from Keller Williams Realty and team Sztanyo.com where we are helping families find their way home. I want to talk a little bit about the buying a home closing process. I’m at a property that my clients are signing papers for today, but they’re in Texas and I’m here in Cincinnati. And before they sign those papers, what you usually want to do 24 to 48 hours before you close on the house is doing a final walkthrough. Sometimes it might be just your realtor walking through doing a FaceTime video for you. And sometimes you’re going to be there in person. And there are three reasons why you want to do a final walk through before closing and what you’re looking for. So let’s get into those details.
Why Final Walk Through Before Closing Is A Must
Reason number one, why you want to do a final walk through before closing is to make sure the seller has maintained the property. What do we mean by that? Well, there’s actually a contractual obligation by the seller in the purchase contract that they need to maintain the property. Let’s take a look at that.
In paragraph nine of the purchase contract is the paragraph for maintenance. And it says until physical possession is delivered to the buyer, the seller shall continue to maintain the real estate as described in section five, including the grounds and improvement improvements thereon. Seller shall repair or replace any appliances, equipment, or systems currently in normal operating condition that failed prior to possession, except, and we write in no exceptions seller further agrees that until physical possession is delivered to the buyer, the real estate will be in as good condition as it is presently, except for normal wear and casually damaged from perils insurable under a standard all-risk policy. If prior to closing the real estate is damaged or destroyed by fire or other casually, the buyer shall have the option to either (A)proceed with the closing or (B) terminate this contract. The buyer and seller agree that the buyer shall be provided the opportunity to conduct a walkthrough inspection of the real estate within 48 hours prior to closing solely for the purpose of ascertaining that the seller has maintained the real estate as required herein and has met all other contractual obligations upon closing and buyer shall become responsible for any risk of loss and for insurance for the real estate.
A lot of times when you’re buying a house, the agent sends you the contracts. You’re not reading them line by line. You should, but you might not. Well, that’s why we wanted to go over this in the contract with the maintenance paragraph is actually saying is that the house needs to be in as good a shape as when you signed the contract. And the other thing you’re doing here on this final walkthrough is if there’s some kind of major damage to the house, if there was a fire, if there was anything else you don’t want to buy a house that is damaged, that’s not the house that you signed to buy when you signed the purchase contract. So you’re making sure everything’s in good shape. No more damage has happened that you need to work out before signing those papers at the closing table.
The second part of that paragraph says that the seller has to fulfill all their contractual obligations. What are those? Well, after you get on a contract, you’re going to go through an inspection process and you’re going to deliver a post-inspection addendum to the seller with a list of repairs you want them to do. And so another thing, the second thing that you’re looking for, besides making sure the house didn’t burn down and there’s no other damage is you’re checking to make sure all of the repairs that the seller said they were going to do-they actually did. And so oftentimes what’s going to happen is the listing agent, that real estate agent, as the repairs get done, besides coming up on the final walkthrough, they also should be sending you pictures of any of the work that’s been done and receipts. And if your buyer’s agent has a good transaction coordinator, they’re going to help you stay on that listing agent. You or the agent should be doing this to make sure you’re getting that list of all the repair receipts and photos. Let’s say there was a repair on the roof. For example, while in your walkthrough, you’re probably not going to bring a ladder with you. So you want to make sure that when that work was done, that the sellers are sending you photos of that work being done and providing the receipts of that work being done.
So that’s kind of what you’re doing in-person is just double-checking all that work has been done. It’s been done well and professionally and completed. So whether it’s, you know, furnace repair or some electrical work or plumbing work, you can put your eyes on it here at the walkthrough and make sure all that work was actually completed.
Number three, the third thing you want to do in the final walk through before closing is just kind of let your heart go a little bit, have fun, enjoy the property, let your excitement get the best of you because you’re through everything. You’re through the lending process and you’re through the searching process and you’ve got under contract and you got through inspections and you got the appraisal done, and maybe you’ve wired the funds and you’ve even set up a utility and you’ve loaded the moving truck. Now it’s time to enjoy the fact that you actually buying this house it’s yours.
It’s time to just let your emotions kind of go picture yourself in the house picture where you’re gonna put your furniture. If you haven’t done measurements yet already, you should definitely do those by now in case you need to put anything in and just enjoy the fact that this home is about to be yours in a day or two, you’re going to sign the papers. You’re going to get the keys and you’re going to get your new house.
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All right, guys, that’s going to do it for this video. Hopefully it was helpful for you on what the purpose of a final walkthrough is and what your, what you need to do on that final walkthrough. If this was helpful for you, please subscribe to the channel and watch another video. We’ve got all kinds of videos, helping buyers or sellers in the Cincinnati area. If you’re looking to buy or sell a house in the area, give us a call at team Sztanyo – 5138136293. Thank you guys so much. We’ll see you next time.