Some great ideas brought to you by Jack Edwards at ElkGroveRealEstate.com  If you are planning to sell your home,  I am sure that your agent probably gave you a list of things to do to get your house ready. I have a handout with 44 things to do to get ready to sell that I share with my clients. If you want a copy of my list, don’t hesitate to contact me a Jack@ElkGroveRealEstate.com

In the true spirit of giving credit where credit is due, much of the info below is not something that I have been sharing with my clients, at least in this format. I will in the future, but thanks to a posting on Facebook by fellow Realtor, Sue Gibson, I am sharing her list with my modifications and additions.

Put together binder with the info below. Gathering this information before you put your home on the market may even help your home to sell faster as all of this information is available upfront, eliminating the need for guesswork and waiting on answers while another property could possibly come on the market to grab the buyer’s attention.

1. Home improvements you have made.  Provide paint recipes, wallpaper swatches, etc. Anything along these lines makes it easier for the new homeowner to match and plan. Make sure the paint cans in the garage are well marked too. If you had your house painted, re-roofed, etc… make sure to have the receipts/warranties/estimates available too. If you installed the sprinklers, please leave behind a copy of the plan so that it is easier for the new owner to make repairs or to know where to dig or not dig. A copy of your landscape plan would be helpful too.

2. Floor Plans – Buyers often need to know room dimensions to help with furniture placement n the new space. It is great to be able to provide the floor plan, but be careful about putting in the measurements. If you make a mistake, you may be held liable for the errors. I would just provide the floor plan and let the new buyer use it to record their own measurements. If you don’t have a copy from when you bought the house, ask your Realtor because he or she may have a copy. I keep copies of floor plans for all developments in my area since the time I started my real estate business.

3. Utility Bills – Buyers want to get an idea of what they can expect the heating and cooling bills to be in a home. This information can be very beneficial when a buyer sits down to number crunch their total costs of owning a home.

4. Pest Control – If you maintain any type of pest control on your property, compile information as to who the provider is, what you have done, how much you pay and how often does the company come out to treat the property. A copy of your service agreement is helpful in this instance.

5. Insurance – Buyers especially want to know who a seller uses for their homeowners insurance and how much they pay. This is particularly the case in higher risk areas (where there are hurricanes, floods, fires, etc.) With homeowners insurance potentially more difficult to obtain in some areas, going through the existing seller’s insurance company can help streamline the process, particularly on an older home.

6. Product Manuals and Warranty Documents – Now is the time to gather the various product manuals for all items that will be staying in the home such as appliances, water heater, heating and cooling system, ceiling fans, pool equipment, etc. If your home came with any warranties, be sure to include these for the new owner as well. Putting all of these in one large envelope makes it easy for everything to be readily accessible in one place for the new buyer.

7. Service providers – Compile a list of all service providers/vendors and their contact information who you have used on your home – lawn service, pool service, A/C company, garage door company, etc. While a new buyer may or may not choose to use these services, they will certainly appreciate having resources available to them.

8. Covenants and Restrictions, Neighborhood Rules and Information – Yes, it is true that the potential buyer will get a copy during the escrow process, buy it is a good idea to have this info available before the buyers show up. This is key critical information for a new owner to have on hand. A contract may likely hinge on the buyer’s review of this information, so it is best to have it available ahead of time. If you don’t have these, contact your neighborhood’s association president or management company for assistance in obtaining a copy. Many of these documents are matters of public record and are available by going online to the appropriate municipality’s website.

9. Survey – especially if you have acreage or a large lot, you might want to consider a survey. Have this document available and provide to your listing agent so they can include in the information about your home. Buyers want to know about property lines, easements, conservation buffers, if there is room for a pool, if the property line extends to the water behind your home, etc. Having a survey to provide upfront will help to eliminate these types of concerns vs. waiting until a property is under contract.

10. Important contact numbers, addresses, websites and email addresses – it is especially important that a potential buyer knows who to contact to contact when they need help. For example, who handles the Home Owners Association administration. Often it is an outside company that handles it all, and your buyer needs to be able to make contact with them.  You might even leave a list of your favorite stores and service providers. How about getting the water, gas, electricity out of your name and into theirs. They will need that info to make it happen. Last of all you may want to think about leaving your contact info behind so that the new buyer can call or email you if they have questions or if they find that you left something behind, like a box of photos up in the attic.

If you don’t have all of your contact numbers at hand, you may find them on my website at www.LivingInElkGrove.com on the “Utilities” page or the “Links” page.

Start building your memories,
as you turn your house into a home. 

As you might guess, this document is a compilation of information from our own efforts as REALTORS, as well as input from other REALTORS in our Coldwell Banker office.  I hope it has been of value to you.  Don’t hesitate to email us with any suggestions that will make this document better for you and your fellow homeowners!

Be sure to follow us on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/ElkGroveRealEstate.  For information about properties available for sale and for more information for buyers and sellers, please visit our website at www.ElkGroveRealEstate.com and don’t hesitate to give us a call or drop us an email with your questions.