How Buying a House Works in New York: The Westchester Timeline from First Open House to Closing

New York does not buy houses the way most of the country does. If your mental model comes from another state — or from HGTV — the sequence here will surprise you at least three times: the offer that binds nobody, the inspection that happens before the contract exists, and the attorneys who run the entire middle of the transaction.

This is the full sequence for a Westchester purchase, with realistic timing, the costs at each step, and the county-specific diligence that belongs inside it. Process details vary by deal; your attorney is the authority on yours.

Step 0 (before any open house): assemble the team

Competitive Westchester deals are won in the 72 hours after an accepted offer, which means the team exists before the offer:

• Mortgage pre-approval — not pre-qualification — from a lender who closes in New York routinely.
• A New York real estate attorney, retained and on standby. New York closings are attorney-driven; yours reviews and negotiates the contract, runs title, and closes the deal.
• A home inspector who can mobilize within days. In this market, the inspection window is measured in days, not weeks.
• A licensed local agent who does volume in your target towns — district lines, septic norms, and parking-permit realities are local knowledge worth real money. (Our research and the town guides complement, not replace, licensed representation.)

Step 1: the offer — and why it binds nobody

You bid through the listing side; the seller accepts, counters, or declines. Here is New York's first surprise: an accepted offer is not a contract. Nothing is binding on anyone until written contracts are signed by both sides, typically one to two weeks later. Until then the seller can keep showing the house and entertain better offers, and you can walk for any reason.

The practical implication: after acceptance, speed is protection. Every day between acceptance and contract is a day the deal can die.

Step 2: inspection — before the contract, not after

New York's second surprise. Because the contract usually sells the house "as is" based on what you knew at signing, your inspection happens in the accepted-offer window. In Westchester, the standard inspection earns its fee — this housing stock is old and the county has signature issues:

• Buried oil tanks — active, abandoned, or "removed" with paperwork that needs verifying. Tank scans are cheap relative to remediation.
• Septic systems across much of northern Westchester (Katonah, Somers, Pound Ridge, much of Yorktown) — age, location, capacity, and approved bedroom count all matter.
• Water, drainage, and flood exposure — riverfront and Sound Shore parcels carry flood-zone and insurance questions; inland, grading and basements tell drainage stories.
• The paperwork inspection: certificates of occupancy for every addition and finished space, open permits, and — always — parcel-level school district verification and the actual tax bill.

Findings become negotiation: price adjustment, seller repairs, or a walk. All of it happens before you sign anything binding.

Step 3: contract signing — the deal becomes real

The seller's attorney drafts; your attorney negotiates riders (financing contingency, inspection-issue resolutions, closing timing, what conveys); you sign and wire the contract deposit — commonly 10% of the purchase price in this market — into the seller's attorney's escrow. Once both sides have signed, you have a deal, and walking away without a contingency that excuses you puts the deposit at risk.

The financing contingency is the clause to understand completely: it defines what happens if your loan falls through. Whether and how to include one is a strategy conversation with your attorney — waiving it strengthens a bid and raises your risk, and Westchester bidding wars push buyers toward exactly that trade.

Step 4: mortgage commitment — the quiet four to six weeks

You formalize the application; the lender appraises and underwrites; somewhere in week four to six a commitment letter arrives. Two things matter during the quiet stretch: change nothing financially (no new loans, no job changes, no large unexplained transfers), and watch the appraisal — an appraisal below contract price reopens negotiations in a deal-specific way your attorney will manage.

Meanwhile your attorney runs title: liens, judgments, boundary and survey questions, unpaid taxes, open permits. Title insurance — required by lenders, wise regardless — comes out of this work.

Step 5: closing — the money, itemized

The walkthrough happens a day or so before closing: systems on, agreed repairs done, house in contract condition. Then everyone signs for an hour or two, and the recurring closing-cost lines for a Westchester buyer look like this (many buyers budget roughly 2-5% of price all-in; your attorney will itemize precisely):

• Attorney fees; title searches and title insurance
• Lender charges, and mortgage-recording tax on financed purchases
• The mansion tax: 1% of the full price, buyer-paid, at $1M and above. $10,000 at exactly $1M — the threshold is a cliff, and in this county a large share of family purchases cross it. (New York City's graduated higher tiers do not apply in Westchester.)
• Recording fees, plus escrow deposits for property taxes and insurance
• Adjustments to the seller for prepaid taxes and fuel (the seller typically pays New York State's transfer tax)

Keys change hands, and two post-closing tasks pay for themselves: register for the STAR credit with New York State (the seller's exemptions do not transfer to you), and calendar the municipal assessment-grievance window — if you bought below the value your assessment implies, you may have a case from day one.

The timeline at a glance

Print the buyer checklist, read the full buyer guide for the diligence detail behind every step above, and brief the glossary before your first bid — the process moves fastest for the buyers who already speak its language. And when your deal hits a step that doesn't match the script, ask us: process questions have researchable answers, and the right one is usually a phone call to your attorney away.