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I am am under contract on the house I am selling and I wanted to know what should I do to prepare the house for the buyers. I am getting it professionally cleaned and was going to touch up the nail holes and other scuff marks on the walls with touch up paint. Anything else? I know my contract says just "broom swept" but that seemed rather weak.
"Broom clean" doesn't require more than removing items not to be given to the buyer as stated in the contract and sweeping up any debris from move-out.
Any damage that occurred after the buyer inspected should be fixed too.
I am am under contract on the house I am selling and I wanted to know what should I do to prepare the house for the buyers. I am getting it professionally cleaned and was going to touch up the nail holes and other scuff marks on the walls with touch up paint. Anything else? I know my contract says just "broom swept" but that seemed rather weak.
It seems that one person's "broom clean" is another person's "squalor and filth."
It is classy to have the place extremely clean, even if that means hiring a cleaning service for a move-out clean.
The Buyer will notice on their walk-through and thank you for it.
I am am under contract on the house I am selling and I wanted to know what should I do to prepare the house for the buyers. I am getting it professionally cleaned and was going to touch up the nail holes and other scuff marks on the walls with touch up paint. Anything else? I know my contract says just "broom swept" but that seemed rather weak.
As a buyer I would be very appreciative of the efforts you described above. I have read on other forums how some sellers try to leave any owner manuals they have for appliances that convey with house. Again, not necessary, but I'm sure it would be appreciated.
Our seller left a partially used can of paint that he recently used to paint the interior. It came in very handy to us since we didn't have to guess the paint color name or formula when we wanted to touch-up a few scuff marks from our move in process.
We also left an owner's manual but we did not leave the paint cans, we left the paint chips from the store we purchased it from. The previous owners of our home left an entire shed full of paint cans. (interior, exterior, shutters, shed, porch, trim etc).
It was irritating because then WE were the ones who had to clear out the shed and take all the paint cans to the dump to be specially prepared so they could be thrown away (since they're considered toxic).
Before leaving paint cans, I would ask the buyers if they WANT the paint cans or if they'd just prefer a list of color names and where they came from. I expected the shed to be cleaned out when we moved in and was slightly irritated at finding all the paint cans stacked up in there! Plus, depending on how old the paint is and how well it was stored, a lot of times you can't even use the old paint. My vote is for getting RID of the paint and leave them the colors in the owner's manual unless they specifically ask for the paint cans.
As for preparing the house, I think we just did a regular cleaning, made sure the kitchen sink and counters were cleaned up, the floors were clean, the bathrooms were clean, there was nothing laying around the yard and all the trash had been taken care of and removed. Most of it was already pretty clean anyway because we'd been out of the house for a few months before we closed. Also, we touched up the trim and doors with paint before we listed the house, so that type of stuff didn't really need to done again.
We also left the paint cans. We also left the fireplace supplies (wood, fire starter logs, fireplace tools) since our old house had a wood fireplace and our new house has gas. We asked the buyers if they wanted these things before hand though.
I am am under contract on the house I am selling and I wanted to know what should I do to prepare the house for the buyers. I am getting it professionally cleaned and was going to touch up the nail holes and other scuff marks on the walls with touch up paint. Anything else? I know my contract says just "broom swept" but that seemed rather weak.
Cut the grass too. Our house we bought in Durham was clean but the owner had not cut the grass for at least 2 weeks. We did not move our mower as it was a corded electric mower and we now have a bigger lot. Being new to town we had to scramble to find someone to mow the lawn. Thank goodness for craigslist.
In addition to the move out cleaning, manuals, and leaving the paint (after we verified they wanted it) we also prepared a document for them. It detailed:
- Service providers we liked (handyman, plumber, maid, HVAC, electrician, fence)
- HOA website
- Favorite neighborhood restaurants
- Dog parks and Vet (we knew they had a puppy)
- HVAC filter sizes
- Instructions for turning on the whole house humidifier each winter
- Location of all the shut off valves
The couple that bought our house were first time home buyers. So we put a little more effort into the document than if it had been seasoned buyers.
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