Your Pittsburg home is officially under contract? Congratulations! You accepted a buyer’s offer, and you are one big step closer to closing. But do not relax just yet. There is still a road between here and the keys, and knowing what comes next saves you stress and delays.
Step 1: inspections and the buyer’s conditions
Most contracts give the buyer a few safety valves, called contingencies: a home inspection, loan approval, sometimes the sale of their own home. How you handle them can make or break your closing.
The buyer usually books the inspection within days. Make the home easy to show: accessible, clean, utilities on. After the inspection, the buyer may ask for repairs or a credit. We help you answer those requests without giving away more than you need to.
Here is where preparation pays off twice. A buyer who already read your disclosure package rarely comes back with a long repair list. The surprises were handled before the offer.
Step 2: the appraisal
If the buyer has a mortgage, the lender sends an appraiser to confirm the home is worth the price. The appraiser visits, compares your home with nearby recent sales, and writes a report.
If the number comes in below the contract price, the buyer can ask to renegotiate or walk away. Our job is to not let that surprise you: we hand the appraiser the strongest nearby sales and the receipts for your improvements, and if a problem comes up, we argue your side.
Step 3: escrow and title
Escrow is the neutral middleman. It holds the money and the documents until every condition is met. Meanwhile, the title company checks the property’s record for liens, unpaid taxes, or anything else that must be cleared before closing.
Your to-do list in this stretch is simple: sign the paperwork, complete the required disclosures, and respond quickly when something is requested. Slow answers are the most common self-inflicted delay.
Step 4: avoid last-minute surprises
Even near the finish line, things come up: a hiccup in the buyer’s financing, a late document, a sudden repair. Stay flexible and easy to reach. Your agent handles the communication and smooths the bumps.
A real one from our own files: on a recent sale, the buyer’s loan fell apart days before closing over a charge the city had recorded against the property in error. We went to the city, got the item corrected, the loan was rebuilt, and the sale closed. That is what handling the surprise looks like: nobody panicked, someone picked up the phone.
Delays also have a price tag. In our recent closings, the contracts that slipped past their date carried penalty clauses of $100 to $200 per day. Answering fast is not politeness; it is money.
A few days before closing, the buyer walks through the home one last time to confirm everything is as agreed. Leave it the way the contract promises.
Step 5: plan your move-out
- Packing: give yourself at least two weeks for a low-stress move.
- Cleaning: leave the home clean and empty, unless the contract says otherwise.
- Utilities: schedule the transfer or shut-off for your closing date.
Ready to close with confidence?
We make sure no detail is missed. We know what causes delays here and how to keep things moving toward a smooth closing.
This checklist is not theory. Our transaction files show 14 closings in 2025 and 8 more so far in 2026, counted in October 2026, and every one of them walked these same five steps.
The whole journey, from pricing to this closing stretch, is mapped on the sell page. And if the home has a tenant in place, the timeline and the notices are different: tenant-occupied sales is the page for that.
