After several years of diligently saving money, I’m nearly ready to purchase my first home. Because I’ve been thinking about buying a home for so long, I know exactly what I want my house to look like. I desire a place that has three bedrooms and three bathrooms. I also need a quiet space to set up my home office in. I want a massive, walk-in closet in my master bedroom. My master bathroom needs to have double vanities, a tiled, walk-in shower, and a Jacuzzi tub. On this blog, I hope you will discover how to set priorities during your new home search. Enjoy!
A New Home Search
Selling Your Home? Don't Overlook These Preparation Tasks
Elli Jokela
It's not easy preparing your home to put up on the market for sale. It needs a solid deep cleaning, fresh paint, decluttering, new landscaping, and more. By the time you're done, it looks brand new and better than ever! However, there are a few more tasks that you need to do before you are truly ready for prospective buyers, including:
Getting an Up-to-Date Survey of the Home.
Potential buyers will want to know about easements, property lines, etc. They want to know where to put up a fence if there isn't one. They want to know if there is adequate space for a backyard pool. They want to know if that creek is part of the property. By providing all of this information upfront, you will ease their minds and eliminate future issues when it comes closing time.
If you haven't completed any changes to the property since you purchased it, then you should be able to retrieve the copy of the survey from the title company or the attorney who managed the closing from when you purchased the home. If changes have been made, then you will need to order a new survey altogether.
Offering a Look at Your Utility Bills.
You may feel that giving up your utility bills is an invasion of your privacy, but buyers see it as a way to get a feel for what they'll be paying if they decide to purchase your home. Look at it as a motivation tactic to sell your home. Give them what they want so that you can get what you want. By providing this information to prospective buyers, you are helping them crunch their numbers to determine whether they can afford to buy your home. More than likely, you will not have kept every single utility bill from the previous year or two. However, you can access them online or phone your utility company and get a breakdown of high, low and average costs.
Compiling Neighborhood Information and HOA Covenants and Restrictions.
Although your realtor will likely have some important information regarding the neighborhood as well as the HOA, if there is one, it doesn't hurt to provide your own information to your real estate agent and potential buyers. After all, you never know when you may have insider information that your realtor doesn't have. In any case, this will be information buyers will want to get their hands on as it could make or break a contract. Some HOAs may not allow certain breeds of dogs in the neighborhood and one very interested buyer may have a breed of dog on the not allowed list.
When "I need to sell my home" becomes a goal in your mind, turn to the list above to make sure you prepare for the experience properly.
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