Selling a Home? Get Your Documentation in Order

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Planning to sell your home? Having great information readily available for prospective buyers as well as for your agent will speed the process. These items can be used to justify your asking price, as well as being important documents to pass onto your buyer.

By spending just a little more time up front getting prepared, you can reduce weeks or even months from the waiting-to-close process.

Armed with the following information, any agent, attorney, or title company will be better able to assist you with your transaction.

Items needed:

  1. Dates when you replaced or had serviced items such as roof, water heater, appliances, heating and air, etc.
  2. A binder or manual of warranties for your appliances, HVAC, water heater, roof, etc.
  3. Vendor contact information for annual services performed such as servicing the HVAC, pest treatment or lawn care.
  4. Neighborhood information – location of shopping, schools, police and fire as well as contact information for people in the neighborhood.
  5. HOA information: a copy of the covenants and deed restrictions, monthly fees, address for payments, contact person and their information.
  6. Your proposed sales price and how you determined it.
  7. What upgrades have been added to your home along with invoices for those repairs and improvements.
  8. Return On Investment (ROI) you are expecting for these upgrades. How much did you spend for these items; how much of the expense do you hope to get back; how did you come up with that number? You may have added improvements to your home, for example a pool, hot tub or room addition, that will not actually add value to the property or certainly not dollar for dollar what you spent. These are things that need to be discussed with your agent and considered when coming up with your asking price.
  9. Title Insurance Company and Policy # – Proves that you have clear title to the property and that you had chain of title checked when you purchased.
  10. Survey – a copy of what you had done when you purchased or what was given to you from previous owner.
  11. Old Listing Sheet – that was used by the selling agent to sell the home when you purchased it.
  12. Your Mortgage – lender name, account number, balance, address, and contact info.
  13. Lien Wavers – receipts for any work done by a contractor in the previous six months.
  14. Utility Bills – buyers often ask what it will cost to live in the property.
  15. History of your property – Any pertinent information such as the builder’s name and information regarding additions prior to your purchase, etc.

The goal of any seller is a swift and easy transaction. The more information you provide at the beginning of the process, the more time and effort you will save over all.

What items can you add to the list?

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