List what stays before you sign
Write the appliances, fixtures, and window coverings that stay, and the items you will take.
Offers often assume the appliances and the attached fixtures stay. If you plan to take a refrigerator, a curtain rod, a mirror, or a shelf in the garage, write that down before you sign. A list you only remember is not part of the deal. Walk the house with a pen and mark stay or goes on each item you might argue about later. Do it in daylight so you do not skip the back of the garage.
Include the rooms people forget: the laundry, the shed, the attic pull-down if a fixture is mounted there, and the yard if a bench is bolted down. Window coverings are a common miss. If the drapes stay and the rods go, say both. If a television mount stays and the television goes, say both. The more ordinary the item, the more likely someone assumes the opposite of what you meant.
Attach the list to your counter or your acceptance. Handing it over later, after the papers are signed, is how you discover it was never part of the contract. If the form has a section for inclusions and exclusions, copy your marks into that section and keep your walk list behind it in the file. Read the form's section out loud against the walk list once. An item on the walk list that never made it onto the form is not in the deal.
If you are replacing an item before closing, write the replacement on the list too. A tired washer you will swap for the one from the apartment should be described, or you should leave the one that was there. Do not swap after signing and hope nobody notices. The final walk is easier when the list, the house, and the form all name the same things. Take the goes items out before that walk, or label them so nobody thinks they were stolen.
What to do
- Walk the house in daylight and mark stay or goes, including the garage and the shed.
- Write window coverings, rods, and mounts as their own lines.
- Copy the list into the form and attach it to the paper you sign.
- Remove the goes items before the final walk, or label them.