• When you feel you have found the right house you need to act quickly.
• Make a fully written offer and present it to the owner(s), which will then be either accepted as is, rejected, or a counter-offer made. If all terms are agreed upon by both buyer and seller then you have a ratified contract.
• Within 7-10 days after final contract ratification you must do a home inspection and any other inspections that you feel are important.
• Usually within 10 days you must do a full loan application.
• Within 10 to 20 days you will choose a settlement attorney to start processing your case.
• Within 30-40 days you must provide the seller with written proof of loan commitment.
• For Maryland properties, the buyer must get a termite inspection.
• Within 7-10 days prior to settlement start switching the utilities of your new home into your name.
• Within 7-10 days prior to settlement make an inquiry to the Settlement office to make sure that everything is on schedule and there does not appear to be any problems with the process.
• Within 2 days from closing call the attorney or your lender to find out how much money (cashier check or certified funds) you need to bring to closing (this is usually an estimate).  If you bring too much money the lawyer will refund the balance back, if you did not bring enough most lawyers will accept a small personal check for the balance.
• Either the day before or the day of closing you will do a final walk-through inspection to make sure everything is working and that the house is in the same basic condition as the day of the offer.

These are just estimated dates and items and this time line is based on terms and conditions agreed upon by both parties in a ratified contract.