Un-Solicited House Selling Tips

I know I promised home buying tips but we aren't there yet. Our house it set to close November 29th and it has been a bit stressful.

The couple is young, but we were young too... our guess is they have some parent's who are ignorant to home construction pressuring them to be ridiculous! However we are moving forward on the close so I thought I would point out some things I will be sure to do differently next time around.

• Go with an agent you know will give your home their all. Our first agent was the man who sold us our house, we really like him so it was the logical choice. Although we knew he had started a foreign car business we did not realize he was not actively "real-estating" and was only doing this because he knew us. After 4 months we parted ways and our new agent got us an offer after 4 days.
• Save all documentation. If you do any construction on the house save all receipts and the "lien waver" from the company, I recommend scanning them into your computer. You will also need copies of the backflow certifications for sprinkler systems and probably other stuff I don't know about.
• Pre-inspect your house. It does not have to be someone certified, maybe you know a friend who is a contractor or something. You can probably bribe them with dinner! It is much less stressful to fix things in advance than to receive an email saying "fix this or we walk." OK the email didn't quite say that, but you get it. What was so frustrating is that we got our home inspected a year and a half ago when we bought it!
• Use your resources. The closing is during the week so obviously we are not driving 4 hours for that, my HR person at work is a notary, DONE. My Dad met a great real estate agent and an electrician through work, though they don't come free we know and trust them, so DONE. My uncle is an engineer, the buyers where concerned about basement cracks and wanted them looked at... DONE! Since we moved 4 hours away it was very important to have someone who could supervise the house, the neighbors would have done it but I would have felt awful asking. My dad is handyman extraordinaire, DONE!

So take it or leave it, Happy selling and buying to all my dear friends!