Wouldn't you just love to buy a new or used home and find a complete list of
appliances and how old they are along with the manuals? And wouldn't it be nice to know which
plumber or lawn maintenance person the previous owner hired?
You're not alone! Put your home one step ahead
of your competition by putting together a package of important documents and information on your
home. Keep it available for showings and the open house and impress potential buyers. Then present
it to the buyer on closing. We’ll show you how to use a three-ring binder to organize all the
information.
Gather the following information:
Appliance owner’s manuals
Appliance warranty information
List of appliances and ages
Mechanical systems owner’s manuals (water heater, air conditioner, furnace, pool pump, well, etc.)
Mechanical systems warranties
List of mechanical equipment and ages
Landscape and irrigation plans
List of contractors names, addresses and phone numbers and what items they
maintain (pool service, lawn maintenance, furnace servicer, public transportation,etc.)
List of neighborhood amenities (parks, recreation, libraries, stores, etc.)
List of schools for your neighborhood along with bus schedules and bus stops
City and county services (trash pickup days, how is mail delivered, recycling, etc.)
Owners’ manuals for other interior items (lighting, ceiling fans, plumbing fixtures, etc.)
Owners’ manuals for exterior items (garage door opener, keyless entries, etc.)
Home owner’s or condo association documents
Purchase a heavy-duty D-ring view binder in a size that fits the information you just gathered (A view binder allows you to customize your information with a title sheet)
Purchase one set of 7 tab divider labels
Label the tab dividers as follows:
Neighborhood Info.
Contractors
Appliances
Mechanical Systems
Interior Items
Exterior Items
Home owner’s or condo association documents
Punch holes in the material you have gathered and place under the tabs as follows (if a manual is too large for your hole punch, take it to an office supply store for punching):
Under Neighborhood Info. section place:
Neighborhood amenities
School information
City and County services
Under Contractors section place:
List of contractors and contact information
Under Appliances section place:
List of appliances and ages
Appliance owners’ manuals
Appliance warranties
Under Mechanical Systems section place:
List of mechanical systems and ages
Mechanical systems owners’ manuals
Mechanical systems warranties
Under Interior Items section place:
Owners’ manuals for interior items
Under Exterior Items section place:
Owners’ manuals for exterior items
Under Home owner’s or condo association documents section place:
Projects to your home in which special permission from the association was received
