1. Survey Do you have a copy of a current survey on your home? 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. If you’ve made any changes that would affect your property such as adding a pool or fence since you took ownership and are not shown on your current survey, it’s important to advise the buyer. A new survey will usually need to be ordered prior to closing in this scenario. If you don’t have one from when you purchased the home, try contacting the title company or attorney’s office that handled the closing of the property. Depending on how long ago that was, they may be able to retrieve from their archives. 2. Floorplan or Appraisal Sketch Buyers often need to know room dimensions as it helps with determining furniture placement and to ensure how what they have will fit (or have to be reconfigured) in the new space. As any real estate agent can attest, many hours have been spent measuring spaces while looking at a home and comparing that against the existing buyer’s furniture dimensions. I’ve encountered entire home searches that revolved around a great room accommodating an entertainment center and the garage size so a motorcycle could fit in addition to the cars! An appraisal is helpful as it can confirm the exact square footage of a home vs. relying on tax records which may not be accurate. We’ve all heard stories where the appraisal showed the actual square footage that was smaller than what was initially represented in a listing sheet. Having an appraisal will help to ensure that does not happen. You should have received a copy of the appraisal if you obtained a mortgage loan from your lender or if you refinanced. If you don’t have either, consider having a floorplan drawn up or home measured by an appraiser when prepping your home for sale. Your agent can assist with resources to this effect. 3. Utility Bills Buyers want to get an idea of what they can expect the heating and cooling bills to be in a home. Review your bills over the last one to two years to get an average in the various seasons, or call your local utility provider as they can often provide you with information on the high, average and low costs. This information can be very beneficial when a buyer sits down to number crunch their total costs of owning a home. If you had an unusually high or low bill, provide some explanation to accompany the numbers. To know the other steps please read the second part. Síguenos en Facebook Instagram YouTube COLDWELL BANKER MÉXICO
