Buying · Resources · Ready in 90 Series
Ready in 90 · Part 5: Writing an offer, protecting yourself, and getting to closing.
How to write a competitive offer, why contingency deadlines matter, what actually happens between acceptance and closing, and what to expect on closing day.
The series
This is Part 5 of 5 — the final installment. If you haven't read Parts 1 through 4, start the series from the beginning. This post assumes you already have your credit, DTI, pre-approval, real budget, agent, and market research in hand.
- Part 1Know Your Numbers
- Part 2Get Pre-Approved and Shop Lenders
- Part 3Know Your Real Budget
- Part 4Find Your Agent, Understand Your Market, Define What You Want
- Part 5Write an Offer, Protect Yourself, Get to Closing— you are here
This is where ninety days of preparation pays off — in a clear head, grounded expectations, and the ability to move confidently through the final steps without being surprised by things you should have known.
This guide covers how to write a competitive offer, how contingencies protect you and why their deadlines matter, what happens between acceptance and closing, and what to expect on closing day itself.
General educational content. Contract terms, contingency deadlines, and closing timelines vary by transaction. Speak with a licensed Realtor about your specific situation.
Section 1
Writing a competitive offer.
Start with price, and start with data. A competitive offer price is built from comparable closed sales in your target area — homes of similar size, age, and condition that actually sold, not homes that are still sitting on the market hoping. Then calibrate to current conditions: in a market where inventory is moving in days, list-price-or-better may be the entry ticket; in a market where homes sit for two months, there is usually room. Your agent's job is to translate that data into a number that is strong enough to be taken seriously and disciplined enough that you don't regret it at the appraisal.
Earnest money is the good-faith deposit that accompanies your offer — money you put at risk to demonstrate you're serious. In Utah, amounts commonly land somewhere around one percent of the purchase price, though it varies with price point and competition. A healthy earnest money figure signals to a seller that you have liquid funds and intend to perform. It is not a fee: at closing it is credited toward your down payment and costs, and while your contingencies are alive it is protected. I broke that down fully in the earnest money guide for Utah buyers.
Closing timeline is the term buyers most often overlook and sellers most often care about. A seller who has already bought their next home needs speed; a seller with kids finishing a school year needs time. Asking which one you're dealing with — and then writing the date that serves them — can make your offer meaningfully more attractive without spending a dollar. Flexibility on possession, or a short rent-back after closing, is often worth more to a seller than another few thousand in price.
Then the remaining terms: which appliances stay, what repairs you're asking for, the possession date, and any seller concessions — including whether the seller contributes toward your closing costs or your buyer's agent compensation. The goal of the whole package isn't to win by being loudest. It's to hand the seller an offer that plainly says: this buyer can close, will close, and has written terms that work for everyone at the table. That's also why the highest offer isn't always the one that gets accepted.
Local Realtor note
"I don't write offers based on what buyers hope the seller will accept. I write them based on what the current market data supports and what makes sense for this specific property and this specific seller's situation."
— Dana Hoyt, Summit Keys
Section 2
Contingencies — the protections that make the transaction safe.
The inspection contingency defines a window — typically around ten days — during which you can have the home professionally inspected and then choose your path: negotiate repairs or a credit, accept the home as-is, or cancel the contract and receive your earnest money back. Your response after the inspection is one of the most consequential decisions in the entire transaction. Ask for the things that are expensive, unsafe, or structural. Let go of the things a homeowner fixes on a Saturday. A repair list that reads like a punch list of every cosmetic note in the report tends to make sellers dig in on the items that actually matter.
The financing contingency protects you if the mortgage cannot be completed despite your good-faith effort to obtain it. If the loan falls through because of a lender issue, a job loss, or another qualifying event, this contingency is what lets you cancel and recover your earnest money rather than losing it because your financing died through no fault of your own. It is also the reason your lender re-checks your credit and employment before funding — and why the "don't change anything" rule in Section 3 exists.
The appraisal contingency protects you when the property appraises below the agreed purchase price. Lenders lend against appraised value, not against enthusiasm. Without this contingency — or where the contract includes appraisal gap coverage you agreed to — a low appraisal can leave you owing the difference in cash, or forfeiting earnest money if you walk. With it intact and inside its deadline, you have genuine options: renegotiate, split the gap, cover it, or cancel.
Every one of these has a contractually defined deadline, and this is the part that quietly costs buyers real money. Missing a deadline can remove the protection it provided — even when your underlying reason for invoking it is entirely legitimate. A low appraisal on day twenty-two doesn't help you if your appraisal deadline was day twenty-one. Before you sign, walk through every date in the contract with your agent and put each one in your calendar with a reminder several days ahead.
One more framing worth carrying with you: contingencies aren't a list of ways to back out. They're the structure that makes the whole arrangement fair — you commit real money and real time, and in exchange you get defined windows to verify what you're buying. In competitive situations buyers are sometimes asked to shorten or waive them. That can be a reasonable strategy. It should never be an uninformed one.
Buyer protection
"Contingencies are not weakness — they're what makes earnest money safe to put down. Waive them carefully and only when you understand exactly what protection you're giving up."
— Dana Hoyt, Summit Keys
Section 3
What happens between offer acceptance and closing.
Acceptance isn't the finish line — it's the starting gun on roughly thirty days of parallel work. Here's the shape of it. Exact dates vary by contract and lender, but the sequence rarely does.
Days 1–10
Inspection
The home inspection is scheduled and completed. You review the report with your agent and decide whether to request repairs, a credit, a price reduction, or to proceed as-is. Order any specialty inspections — sewer scope, septic, well, radon — inside this window.
Days 10–14
Inspection response
Your response goes to the seller. They accept, counter, or decline. If no resolution is reached, you may have the option to cancel within the inspection contingency window and recover your earnest money.
Days 1–21 (ongoing)
Appraisal and underwriting
The lender orders the appraisal and underwriting continues in the background. Expect requests for additional documentation. Do not open new credit, make large purchases, or change jobs during this period.
Days 21–30
Title work
The title search is completed and any clouds on title — liens, easements, boundary or ownership issues — are identified and resolved before closing.
3 business days out
Closing Disclosure
Your Closing Disclosure is delivered. Read it line by line against your original Loan Estimate and flag any difference with your lender immediately, not on closing day.
24–48 hours out
Final walkthrough
Verify that agreed repairs were completed, that nothing has materially changed, and that the home is in the condition you agreed to purchase.
Closing day
Sign, record, keys
Final documents are signed, funds are confirmed, the deed records, and the keys come to you.
Buyer reality check
"Between acceptance and closing — do not open new credit, make large purchases, or change jobs. Any of these can affect your loan approval at the worst possible time."
It's also the window where your cash needs come into focus. If you want the full picture of what's due at the table, the Utah closing costs breakdown walks through every line you'll see on the Closing Disclosure.
Section 4
The final walkthrough.
The final walkthrough is typically scheduled in the twenty-four to forty-eight hours before closing, and its purpose is verification — not a second inspection and not a renegotiation of things you already accepted. You're confirming three things: that agreed repairs were actually completed, that the property is in substantially the same condition as when you made your offer, and that everything included in the sale is still there — appliances, fixtures, and any personal property written into the contract. Run the water, flip the breakers, open the garage door, look under the sinks. An empty house shows problems a furnished one hides.
If a material issue turns up, you have options: request a repair credit, ask that funds be held until the work is done, delay closing while it's resolved, or in some cases renegotiate. What you don't want to do is sign anyway and sort it out later. Once closing documents are signed and the deed records, the seller's obligations under the purchase contract are complete — and the conversation you could have had yesterday becomes a much harder one today.
Do not skip this
"Take the final walkthrough seriously. It's the last moment in the process where discovering a problem gives you meaningful leverage."
— Dana Hoyt, Summit Keys
Section 5
Closing day.
Bring a valid government-issued photo ID — every person on the loan and on title needs one. Bring any personal check the title company has told you to bring, if applicable, and bring your phone in case your lender or agent needs to reach you mid-signing. Everything else is already in motion; closing day is mostly the paperwork catching up to decisions you made weeks ago.
You are responsible for getting your funds to the title company before or at closing, usually by wire. Before you send a single dollar, call the title company directly and verbally verify the wire instructions — account number, routing number, and recipient name — using a phone number you looked up independently. Never rely solely on emailed instructions. Wire fraud targeting real estate transactions is an active, documented, well-organized threat, and the emails are convincing: correct logos, correct names, correct file numbers, one wrong account. Treat any last-minute change to wiring instructions as fraud until a live phone call proves otherwise.
At the closing table you'll review and sign a significant volume of documents — the note, the deed of trust, the Closing Disclosure, various affidavits and disclosures — and the closing agent will walk you through each one. Ask questions; that's what they're there for, and nobody is in a hurry. Once documents are signed and funding is confirmed, the deed is recorded, which is the moment ownership legally transfers. Keys are typically exchanged at or shortly after that confirmation.
Wire fraud warning
"Wire fraud is real. Always call the title company directly to verify wire instructions before sending any funds. Use a phone number you independently look up — not one from the email containing the wire instructions."
Section 6
You're ready.
If you've worked through all five parts of Ready in 90, look at what you're carrying into this: your credit and DTI understood rather than guessed at, a pre-approval from a lender you actually vetted, a real budget instead of a ceiling someone handed you, an agent you chose on purpose, a market you've studied, and a written list of what matters to you. That is not a small thing. It puts you in a meaningfully stronger position than a buyer who skipped any one of those steps and is now trying to figure it out with a deadline overhead.
None of this guarantees a smooth transaction. Real estate always has surprises — a furnace that quits in week two, an appraiser who sees it differently, a seller whose plans change. What preparation buys you is that almost none of the surprises will be the preventable kind, and the ones that do come will find you steady instead of scrambling. That's the whole point. You did the work when it was calm so you could make good decisions when it isn't.
Ready in 90
"The best offer you'll ever write is the one you were ready to write before the house came available."
— Dana Hoyt, Summit Keys
Section 7
The full Ready in 90 series.
Write an Offer, Protect Yourself, Get to Closing
You are here
Frequently asked
Offer, inspection, and closing FAQs.
Ready to write one?
You've done the ninety days. Let's put it to work.
Whether you're weeks out or ready this weekend, I'll walk you through the offer, the deadlines, and every step to closing — no pressure to start today.
Series complete
Start from Part 1 — Know Your NumbersLegal note
General educational content. Contract terms, contingency deadlines, and closing timelines vary by transaction. Real estate transactions involve legal and financial obligations — work with a licensed Realtor and review all contract documents carefully before signing. Wire transfer instructions should always be verified directly by phone. Dana Hoyt is a licensed Realtor® in Utah with Summit Keys Real Estate and Real Brokerage, LLC — The Perry Group.
