Selling your home? Which documents you should pull together

Imagine you're viewing a home for sale. You venture to the basement, check out the furnace room and notice the connection to an AC unit. Is this unit owned or leased? As a potential buyer, you want to know.

Now imagine a property you're viewing has a brand-new gas fireplace. Nice! Is it still under warranty? Is that warranty transferrable to you when you buy the home? You would want to know.

So when you are on the selling side it is very likely, that you will be asked to provide documents pertaining to any and all of these questions. In order to show, that you are an organized seller, who maintained their home and has nothing to hide, it is prudent to get these documents together well before you list the home for sale. Take the time to find the following info:

• Renovation docs (keep the work orders, any receipts, warranty certificates and related docs together)
• Major repairs 
• Service records and mainenance books 
• Manuals of all appliances (no matter if fixtures or chattels)

Keep in mind, that you may have purchased extended warranties or maintenance agreements at the time of purchase, which may be transferrable to the new owner. Some agreements or leases transfer automatically, so you have to be able to show a potential buyer exactly what they are getting into. The better organized you are at the beginning, the greater the chances become to sell the home to an interested party.