Preparing house for new owners

robatwork

so stopcock works but not a stopcock in s!!!!horpe?

trailingspouse

Can I come and buy your house please?

CWSmith

Bliss77 wrote: »

We are hoping to exchange contracts in the next two weeks and if all goes to plan might be completing at the end of the month.

As we get closer to exchange, I'm starting to get things ready for the new owners. I have cleaned inside all the kitchen cupboards and the oven is having a deep clean next week. Carpets have been cleaned and of course I will give the house a good clean and Hoover before we leave.

My DH thinks I'm going to far but I'm thinking we might need to turf some of the lawn as there will be patches when we take the trampoline down and move a bike shed. Do you think this is going too far?

Also, when we take the kids name plates of their bedroom doors they leave a yellowish square - I suggested painting the doors but DH says there is no need and would only show up the other doors.

When we take a couple of shelves down that we want to take (most fixtures are staying but my son has some magnetic display boards in his bedroom, they will need painting behind. We still have the paint so think DH is okay with me fixing this!

I just hear stories of people moving into their new homes only for excitement to turn to disappointment when they see what has been left. our buyers have been really patient and offered full asking price so I don't want them to feel disappointed when they move in.

What did you to do prepare your house for the new owners? Am I being neurotic!?!?!

No, I don't think you are being neurotic at all.

Today, I washed, ironed and rehung all the curtains that we are leaving behind in a few weeks. Like you, I plan to leave the house absolutely spotless, first because I feel a sort of responsibility to the house after all the years we have lived here - to leave it at its best (yes I know that sounds somewhere between pathetic and bonkers:o). Secondly, because I don't want the new owners to think I'm a slovenly mare and then go and tell the neighbours so.

I am also weeding and tidying the garden.

Old_Git

grass seed costs a couple off quid .Just clean the house leave basic instructions for the heating ect leave a forwarding address if you want but thats it over .

Dont be doing a drive by to see what they have done to your house, oops I mean their home

flora48

My worst experience on moving house was to find they had taken all the light bulbs and every scrap of loo paper. Since then I make sure everywhere is basically clean, bathrooms and toilets stocked with the bare essentials and always leave soap and a little hand towel, plus of course the light bulbs with a welcome card and a bottle of wine or a pot plant.

pleasedelete

I paid £400 to have 6 contract cleaners in when I last moved house. As the removers emptied each room they cleaned it- spotlessly. The buyers did pay a lot and had a newborn baby and so I wanted to leave everything spotless. We had contract cleaners every 3 months anyway and they were due.

we got to our new house where apparently professional cleaners had cleaned it (family firm ) and it wasnt sparkly and the carpets had fleas.

TBagpuss

definitely leave the place clean
don't lay turf. You don't know what the new owners will want to do with the garden and they presumably saw what the gardn was like when they viewed the property.
Painting - painting just part will stand out, so don't paint any part of the rooms unless you're prepared to do the whole room. which may be a waste of effort as the new owners may decorate as soon as they move in. If you still have the relevant paint then leave it, labelled with the room you used it for.
I second the suggest to make sure you leave lightbulbs, loo roll and soap, instructions for any appliances you are leaving, and useful information such as bin collection days, milk & newspaper deliveries, menus for local takeaways, etc.

Soleil_lune

I wouldn't do jack to it. Nobody ever did it for us when we were homeowners. I(Even though we left our house(s) nice. In fact, in the last house we bought, we had loose and dangerous wires, knackered boiler, dish washer outlet flooding the kitchen (because it hadn't been capped off,) smoke covered ceilings and nets, and carpets so riddled with fleas and crap that we had to re-carpet the place. Why we didn't notice all this on the two times we viewed it still baffles me to this day.

In my experience, the previous owners of your new home don't do sod-all to it! Therefore, I wouldn't again - ever.

Never heard of anyone leaving loo-roll and soap before!

Shoey1610

We are moving from rented to a house we have bought in a couple of weeks. All I want is the new house to have been cleaned and nothing left behind that came off a human or an animal.

I'm fully expecting scuffs and knocks, holes where shelves or pictures were and to have to do some painting and cleaning myself.

If I get left a bottle of wine or a plant, I will be very grateful and happy.

We have been tidying our rental today and we have painted a couple of walls to freshen them up, but the house is completely magnolia and we have been here five years the kids.

greenbee

I left my last house spotlessly clean, but didn't paint where the bookcases were taken out or fill where I took out shelves. Picture hooks were left up as the plaster was rock hard, so at least they could reuse if they wanted to. The one bit of carpet was hoovered but not washed. Lightbulbs were left in, spare paint (where it was only the dregs of the tin) left behind together with a list of paint colours by room and useful info and any instruction books. I also left loo paper. I mowed the lawn and the garden was looking OK.

The place I moved into was filthy, smelly, and the garden overgrown. Luckily the survey had indicated that they weren't really into maintaining the place so I wasn't expecting miracles