Sometime later this year we will be selling our house and moving out of state. The other day I went through all the manuals and receipts for appliances and maintenance done to the house and set them aside for the next owner. I also placed in a box all the specialty tools and spare parts for the plumbing fixtures in the house. Is there any reason not to do this?
What suggestions do you have in preparation for selling. We will use an agent so their input will come first, but just checking the experience of others.
Avoid mis-understandings later, by removing any items that you want to keep but are, or look like they are, attached to the house. Do this even before contacting agents.
My last house buy we haggled over a fireplace insert and a ceiling fan !!
If house has aluminum wiring or high radon count, mitigate now as those are first thing a buyer's inspection now looks for.
RE manuals and tools, that is nice for new owner, unless the tools and parts indicate some chronic problem. And don't set them out until after closing. Leave notes if anything is "tricky", like location of main water valve, etc.
It all depends on if you are still living in the house or have moved out.
If still living in the house you need to take down all personal items such as photos off the walls. Neaten every thing up as much as possiable. Maybe some new neutral paint on the walls if they look bad or have odd ball colors.
Put the manuals in a draw or cabinet and show them to the prospective buyers. Hide the tools but show them to the new owners after they buy the house.
If not living in the house, fresh neutral paint and have everything out of the house that you are not going to leave there.
I sold two houses about 15 years ago. The only things I left were paper work on some of the items. I did not have any special tools. One house I left a riding mower that was in working condition and the new owners wanted it. I wanted to get rid of it as it was too small for my new house.
One house I sold through an agent but sold the second house myself. I do not know what the agents get in your area, but it was 6 % for me.
It is not too difficult to sell a house where I live. We have to go through a lawyer and they are less than $ 1000. He handles most of the legal paper work once you make a deal for the house. There are places on the internet for forms that you and the prospective buyers sign so you do not sell out from under them or they do not back out of the deal with out it costing them a few hundred dollars.
You already got good advice here. I agree the "package" you give the buyer is after closing. I found all the paperwork for the stuff here in a big brown envelope after I moved in. The house wasn't really "staged" per se and that probably cost the buyer some money. It real life I bought the lot and the house just happened to be here anyway. It wasn't long until the seller probably would have a hard time recognizing it. Walls disappeared, doorways moved, there was a chain saw massacre in the back yard etc.
Currently here and I think in most regions it is a strong sellers market and I am seeing bidders wars and houses selling for well over the listing price.
Some important things to me are curb appeal and de-cluttering which includes depersonalization. All systems should be in good repair and you may need termite and radon reports and if you have a septic may need an inspection. Some like a building inspectors report.
If you do any repainting or carpeting/flooring use neutral colors.
Try to avoid any expensive upgrades. One of my neighbors did this on the bad advice of his realtor. He remodeled a bathroom and the buyer remodeled it for elderly parents living with him. My new neighbor had to move in 3 years due to job transfer and old neighbor was chagrined when I bumped into him and told him when he asked that the new neighbor made $100,000 profit.
When we listed I knew we were going to us Pods to move. I got a 20' and loaded it up with anything we were not going to need to survive the next few months. Also took a lot of stuff to the Salvation Army store. We were in the hose 37 years and accumulated a lot of "stuff" that was not really needed.
I did the same with receipts, manuals, anything that may help the new owner. I wrote a two page letter with little things about switches that may not be easily found, best way to change the water filter, etc.
My wife and I move every 5-ish years and we always do what you're doing. All of the documents that are specific to items in that house are collected and placed in a kitchen drawer for the new owners, or given to our realtor to be handed over at closing. If it's just appliance manuals and warranties, those go in a kitchen drawer, but if the pile contains keys, such as for a backyard shed, side gate, or the code for the remote garage door opener, then that goes to the realtor for safe keeping. You don't know who is going to be walking through the house when it's on the market. Spare items, such as special trim, light fixtures, or leftover floor tiles, are neatly placed in the garage.
IMHO, the most important thing when selling is being honest when completing the seller's disclosure checklist. I disclose everything, even things they aren't likely to discover on their own. Like Carly Simon said, "No secrets." That way they can't come back and claim I hid something. So far so good, after about 8 home sales.
Best to be open from the start. I've only move a couple of times but want to headaches over minor issues.
I would not want to move that often but I know people that like to buy a house to restore/remodel. Not a true flip as they will live in it a few years. OTOH, may daughter has had 24 different addresses in 7 states over 5000 miles.
"Using 2007 ACS data, it is estimated that a person in the United States can expect to move 11.7 times in their lifetime based upon the current age structure and average rates and allowing for no more than one move per single year."
My moves mentioned above are only the ones where I sold a house. I've actually moved many more times than that, partly due to a military career. Frequent moves have helped me to realize what's important and what's not so important, as far as 'stuff' goes. We still accumulate stuff, but we donate a ton prior to every move.
I'll put up my hand here. One year I spent the summer basically living out of my car. Crashing at friends' places and occasionally sleeping back home at my mother's house.
It didn't add up to 0.7, though. Slightly less than 0.5.
Those numbers may be average, but I just can not believe them for the majority of the "normal" people.
Maybe they count the military as everyting they change bases as a move ?
Others may be the low rent people that rent a place, let the payments mount up and then move.
I would think more normal may be like move out of the house you are born in, move into a starter home when married, maybe move once more and then the empty nest home, and then to the old age home, maybe they count the move to the grave ?
Not just the military. I know a guy that was in sales for a major consumer goods company. If he wanted to get promoted, the next step up would require him to move about every 3 years to another part of the country.
Growing up, my family was all in Philadelphia. One uncle moved to a suburb 5 miles away. Thought I be there for life. Times have changed. I have 6 grandchildren in five different states, my sister is 700 miles away, my brother 3000 miles and no one I am still in contact back in Philly.
Counting mine, I've been in this house for 45 years but moved first time with parents to their first house when I was 4 years old, second about age 16, third at 19, off to grad school dorm, married move to apartment, move to second apartment, graduate and leave town to rent a house for 2 years, buy first house and move after 7 years to this house. So I am near average.
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