Guidance for buyers in Cherokee and North Fulton — from first conversation to closing table. What the process actually looks like, what to prepare for, and where buyers most often lose money without realizing it.
It depends on what your written agreement says and on what gets negotiated in the contract. There is no default anymore. On August 19, 2026, the Eighth Circuit affirmed the settlement that ended the Sitzer/Burnett commission litigation, which makes the practice changes that took effect in 2024 permanent and no longer under appeal. The part … Read more
Yes. A pre-approval can be withdrawn, and loans do fall apart between the accepted offer and the closing table. It is not common, and in most cases the cause is not something that was wrong at pre-approval. It is something that changed afterward. The part almost no buyer knows: your lender pulls your credit again … Read more
Most financed purchases in Georgia close about 30 days after the contract becomes binding. Three weeks is achievable and is what we usually aim for. The fastest we have closed a financed purchase is two weeks. The date isn’t an estimate from the lender. It’s a date written into the contract that everyone works backward … Read more
In Georgia, closing costs are technically the buyer’s responsibility. In practice they are negotiable, and it is common for a seller to cover part or all of them as part of the deal. How much a seller is allowed to contribute depends on the loan program, not on how good a negotiator anyone is. The … Read more