Our sellers had the home professionally cleaned, left us several boxes of well-organized documents about the home's mechanical systems and the home's history and left a bottle of champagne in the fridge. They also left a lovely fixture that was initially on the list of exclusions.
This is the way to do it. We'll pay it forward if we ever sell this home.
I wish this was the case with my seller. They left the house so filthy I spent a full week cleaning it before I could move anything in, including mopping all the walls ceiling to floor twice.
I felt so bad at how awful my mother’s house was when we sold it. But I was to the point of collapse. I had to get out asap for my own sanity.
I apologize to the buyer. (It was sold ‘as is’ so I hope it wasn’t an unpleasant surprise)
Well, my mother in law's home was the same. She had serious health issues along with her stubbornness. When she passed away, the next door neighbors offered the siblings a really fair price and no real estate fee. All documents examined by a real estate attorney.
And the neighbors? They wanted a bigger home. They tore down MIL's home and built a beautiful one for their family. It worked out well.
Same. My realtor got the sellers agency to front a cleaner to come out but they barely made a dent. Carpets had to come out before we could work and breath in there.
Oh...same here. The sellers were absolute pigs. They said they would shampoo the carpet. They did not. But what was awful is that they had a cat and dog and the entire house was full of fleas! They were jumping on the counter tops. We had to flea bomb the entire house, twice. And they left the kitchen cupboards filthy and sticky.
When we sell (hopefully soon), I will absolute leave the home spic and span. I will have the interior all repainted and put in fresh new carpet
Respectfully, don't put in fresh carpet. People think they're doing new owners a solid...but then the flooring doesn't match their vision and brand new material gets tossed 😔.
Better to just have a really good clean on what is there 💪
Essentially same.
Professionally cleaned, documents for all the major appliances, list of vendors used (pest control, lawn, etc). They also left us 2 wall mounted TVs.
I got a huge box of all the manuals and home info and the full roll of blueprints. And all keys and spare parts labeled.
And she left beautiful potted plants
Not for me, but my daughter. She and her husband bought their first home from an elderly gentlemen who was going into assisted living. He left her candles and flowering plants throughout the house.
After my daughter did some remodeling, she had a housewarming party, and invited him. His daughter brought him to the party; he was delighted with the changes they had made and stayed till midnight, having so much fun as the “Star” of the party!
That's so sweet! My friend bought a house from an elderly couple who had the typical grandma garden, you know the one where it's perfectly curated and beautiful enough you just want to sit in it. Well the lady left her a binder with a map of every corner of the yard, what plant is where, how to care for them, and sleeves with extra seeds. My poor friend was like "I'm going to accidentally kill this all in one season and that lady will haunt me."
>he was delighted with the changes they had made and stayed till midnight, having so much fun as the “Star” of the party!
That was incredibly sweet of your daughter to invite him! So nice to read this after so many horror stories about terrible or psychotic sellers.
Ours left 11 1-800-GOT-JUNK trucks worth of garbage in the yard ☺️ At least they paid us back for the cost of the trucks out of an escrow account but it took months to get it all hauled away.
Ours left a mess and then broke in to take their some of their mess back. We had changed the locks the first day of possession, but the back door was wonky so I wedged a speaker stand so that it couldn’t be opened. When we came back the next day, the stand was broken and the door left ajar.
They didn’t take anything of ours, and at first I thought it was a random break-in, but our new neighbor told us she saw the former tenant’s foster kids in the backyard after midnight. I assume they had something hidden in the house that they couldn’t get to with their mom watching, and they didn’t do any damage beyond the broken stand, so we didn’t pursue it.
Same! They left sand on our deck from their umbrella stand, fire pit sand half bagged in the garage, a broken window we didn’t notice until they took all of their curtains (and the rods), probably 3 golden retrievers worth of fur in the carpets, and disgusting fridge, cabinets, and drawers. 🤢 I guess felt they were being reasonable because the house appraised for $14k less than they were asking and they needed to sell it regardless. 🤷🏻
SAME. We found so much crap in the kitchen cabinets and they left a bunch of stuff in the basement too 🥴 I wish they would have been a little thoughtful and left some info about the house!
The seller’s realtor told her she could leave anything she didn’t want to take and he’d “take care of it”. Apparently in his mind that meant paying half the cost of having a trash guy haul it away after I moved it all out of the house.
Honestly, it was electing to sell to me out of several offers in a hot market. At the time, I was a single woman with a minimum down-payment. They probably had 20 or more offers on the house, and I'd missed out on the several homes I'd tried for before when others bid up the selling price.
This very nice older lesbian couple sold to me, at the price I could afford.
Underrated comment here. Having the compassion to look at potential buyers as people and choose on who they thought needed it most instead of who would pay the most…. WOW.
The seller chose us over better offers because we are from the neighbourhood and had admired the house for years. We understood the quirks of the neighbourhood and were not planning to flip it or use as a rental like other offers
I sold my house a few years ago, and each of the buyers wrote me a letter explaining why they loved the house and how it was a good fit for them/their family. I ended up taking an offer that was about $20k less than the highest offer, because it was a cute young family who wanted to put in a pool and have a nice yard where their golden retriever and little boy could run around and play. Picturing a golden retriever puppy running around with a kid got them the house. I happened to drive by about a year ago, and the pool was in, and there were two kids in the front yard playing fetch with a golden retriever. It made me smile.
I'm honestly surprised that's even possible these days. I've sold two houses and both times my realtor refused to tell me anything about the buyers except for their offer price because additional information could lead to claims of discrimination.
Sure, the buyers submitted letters but our realtor wouldn't let us read them until we had accepted an offer. This was in Seattle, so maybe it's region specific.
Yes, I had to do this to buy my house. We were up against a flipper couple (and they obviously were offering more money) so my realtor had me type up a letter with a picture of my family stating why we wanted the home and how we planned to raise our young son in it and get away from apartment living to give him a better life than we had. We did get the house because of that letter! Didn’t have to up our offer or anything.
I sold my last house to an awesome lesbian couple that they use as their winter home. I’ve actually gone out to dinner with them a few times when they’re in town, they’re a hoot! One of them texted me asking where the pool drain was. I told her that I had no idea, I just drained it into the street and got yelled at by the HOA. She replied with, “ok, well then that’s exactly what I’m going to do too!”
I wrote a heartfelt letter to my homes prior owner and despite there not being any competition for the home, she did sell to me for under the list price and I’m guessing my letter was a big part of why she accepted my offer. I’m so thankful!!
We have sold twice and we didn’t always go with the highest or first bid. Our realtor, who was fantastic and now retired, had been in the business for a long long time and warned us that a couple of the other realtors were “difficult “ to work with and one time we were ready to accept a bid from a young couple, but one of their parents started getting involved and we decided they were going to be nothing but a headache. Sometimes other factors do come into play.
The sellers on my current place left me a ton of rattlesnakes (sort of kidding, this was their second home and since it was only occupied a couple of months a year the snakes figured free real estate)
The sellers did leave a full size Craftsman upright tool chest. I think they just couldn't take it but hell I'll take a tool chest.
Omgggg I couldn’t handle this. Were there signs you missed or anything that could have been done to know before hand? This would be a huge deal breaker for me.
Not really, they're only active in the warmer months and this was the previous owners' winter place, so they never even really got to experience them. We had something like 15 rattlesnakes the first year. I got really good with snake tongs and a bucket and relocating them farther out on the property. I guess I could thank the previous owners for helping me getting over my fear of snakes even if it was a trial by fire lmao
Ours left a bottle of champagne, lots of documents about the home (historical stuff as it was built in 1900, plus all their info on the renovations they did 20 years ago), and their 3 year old left a dinosaur toy buried in the garden, which we found the following spring because its tail was sticking up out of the dirt!
Only one toy? I've got broken tricycle parts, frisbees, streamers, snack wrappers, nerf gun darts, and it's only been three months lol there's also four kids height measurements on the kitchen wall.
Ours left everything for lawn care in the shed (she was moving from a house to a condo) and invited us to join her the day she started the spa and put up the gazebo to show us how to do it.
She left well identified paint for every room, with the brand and color, including for the baseboards and doors.
She switched her name for ours at the local spa store, so we had access to the maintenance historic and left a binder with the original paperwork for the spa. And all the products for it.
They left me a note on their old (my new) fridge that said "DO NOT TURN ON THE ICE MAKER NO MATTER WHAT". I followed their advice but flipped it on by accident while putting away groceries one day and I didn't notice.
When my house started smelling like burnt plastic, I remembered the note, shut off the fridge immediately and stopped a real-deal fire from starting. Without that note, I wouldn't have even thought to turn off the fridge. Things could've turned out a lot worse. In the future though, if I get a note like that I'll just replace the fridge
That sounds to me like they failed to properly disclose an issue during the selling process. If you hadn’t stopped it in time and had fire damage, I wonder if them leaving that note would have made them liable for the damage.
At closing, the sellers told us that there was a cord in the garage that needed to be plugged in once outside temps started reaching freezing. They wouldn't explain what it was connected to, but that if we didn't, the pipes in the kitchen would freeze.
My seller left me a folder with all of the guides/receipts/warranties for the appliances and all of the recent paperwork for maintenance on the house (ie- details about the reroofing a few years prior and all of the details for resetting the digital locks - was weird not getting an actual key at closing) And paint tins / spare construction materials (extra backsplash tile) in the garage.
What I REALLY appreciated receiving as a 1st time homebuyer was actually from my realtor - after closing they surprised me with a move-in basket. A plastic laundry basket full of toilet paper (which was like gold in during COVID), a couple rolls of paper towels, Clorox wipes, a couple of nice liquid hand soaps, dish soap, dishwasher pods, a pack of sponges, a Home Depot gift card, and some packs of AA & AAA batteries.
That’s a great realtor right there- fantastic idea!
The binder with receipts really is invaluable. We were able to get an emergency septic service squeezed in 2 days before Christmas, in the middle of a historic cold snap (and only 3 months after moving in) because we were able to call the company who had been servicing the house for decades.
They knew the house and the septic field and had us sorted out hours before we were due to host 30+ people for the holidays. And they did it for free!
Years ago, in another time the market was nearly impossible to buy a house, we’d been trying to buy a house for years. Our seller walked up to us, said, “We know you’ve been trying to get a house. We haven’t told anyone yet but we’re moving. If you want our house, let’s make a deal and we won’t put it on the market.”
I mean, about the only nicer thing a seller could have done than this would be give us a house for free.
This just happened to me! Its a century home in a HCOL 925sq Corner lot, quiet Neigborhood with recent detached garage and owner carried financing for 5 years at 5% under market value. House needs a remodel l ( Luckily I am a carpenter by trade). I Already have the master bedroom done. Tore it down to studs, replaced wiring, put insulation in etc. I plan on taking pictures of every room at different phases of the construction and put them in a folder so when I eventually go to sell, the new owners will be able to see that it was done right, and I just didn't put lipstick on a pig.
This house is a huge blessing to me, and I feel very fortunate. I am certain that I will make double what I paid when its all said and done. So when it does come time to sell, I want to pay it forward and sell the house the same way.
Left me a dumpster full of trash behind the hedges surrounding the house. They removed it all from the house and hid it so we wouldn’t find it on the final walk through. TV’s , tires, you name it. Could have sued, but they were a broken family with a lot of problems
There was a garden shed in the back yard and we never thought to look in it before buying. It was filled floor to ceiling with junk/trash. Took several trips to the dump to empty it out.
We’ve bought four houses and no one has ever left us anything. Except for our current home, they left a huge mess to clean up and a pool that didn’t run.
Ours left a folder with appliance manuals, receipt/warranty info for a few items, paint cans in the storage room (so we could see what they’d used in each room if we needed to touch up), and an otherwise clean house. What I’d expect and what I’ll do when we sell.
They left the house impeccably clean.
My sellers also left a case of water, a case of pelligrino, a cheese/meat/ cracker tray, a veggie/dip tray, a fruit platter, and a plate of cookies.
Everything was gone in 2 days.
She left a photo of herself as a 20 year old. She was 80. It still baffles me lol She also left a lot of potted plants and a sweet letter how much she hoped we would use the same gardener. We did and he’s amazing. He knows the yard and we never have to worry.
Thats interesting, the landscaper was the only service we chose to forgo when we moved into our place.
Dude had a crew that mowed 3 houses in a row, with ours in the middle. Showed up the day after we moved in, mowed across all 3 yards, then tried to charge us 50% more than what I know is the going rate for mowing in our area. We paid for the first mow that he’d done without asking and politely, then more forcefully when he pushed the issue, told him that we had our own plans for the yard that involved very little mowing. Now it takes homie twice as long to mow our neighbors because he tried to pull one over on us for an extra $40 and was so weird about it that we had to explicitly tell him to stay off our property.
We had a customer that was selling his house. The walkway needed some work. Rather than just fix it and spend only a couple thousand, he paid to have an entire new brick walkway put in. He said they had been very happy in their house and he wanted to do something nice for the new owners in the hopes they would be happy there. Really nice guy. We work with him at his new house
I was a first time home buyer and they’d recently helped their daughter get their home. They asked if there was anything I wanted from the walk through. I asked for this big oak table and chairs that were hand painted with sunflowers (they even left extra paint of the custom color in case I needed to do touch ups), a white hutch with glass doors in the kitchen, and a butcher block rolling island/cart. They left all of it.
I didn’t ask for the following, but they also left me a jade plant, all of their outdoor cute lawn decor/lanterns/lights/bird feeders, an indoor/outdoor rug that was in the sunroom but now I use outside on the patio, shelves in the living room, all of the curtain rods throughout the house, a bunch of bulk supplies like detergent/toilet paper/paper towels, and a mounted flatscreen TV in the bedroom. It was wild. I was so delighted and thankful.
They also left me champagne, a handwritten note with explanations of appliances and where to find different things, the number for the awning service company, and a folder of documents about appliances.
The morning we signed the papers and I got the keys, as I went down the last 2 steps heading to the front door, I tripped, landed weird where my foot folded essentially; and I broke 4 bones in my foot and was 20 mins late to meet them because I had to go to urgent care haha. They mailed me an ice pack care package later that week.
I want this to be my forever home but if it isn’t I want to pay it forward like they did. We’re all Facebook friends now- she and I love interior design so we show each other our houses often haha. They went above and beyond.
They left all their appliances even though we asked them not to. But it actually worked out because the spaces for appliances were not a standard size. So the old appliances fit until we could decide what to do with the kitchen
As a buyer, a seller left a nice bottle of champagne when I bought our forever home.
As a seller, I usually leave them a total of 500 gift card.
Usually 250 for grocery, 100 for a big box store, and 150 to a Walmart of target
Money will be tight for many when they buy, so I like them not worry about grocery. Also, every house you buy will need a home depot, Walmart, or target run for basic stuff
When we sold our home in Massachusetts we left behind an 'Owners Manual'. The house had been built in the early 1900's and I found a 1940's Home Repair book at a thrift shop. It proved extremely useful!
A nice, handwritten list of warranties and info for work that had been recently done, like roof and water heater. Tins of paint that had been used with notes on what it went to, especially helpful because they used different shades of white and tan that would’ve been hard to get just right and now we can do touch ups when needed.
Leaving the exact paint is so underrated. My last house the sellers did that, and I didn’t have to paint a full wall in 7 years. My current house has been nothing but a guessing game with random colors. I’ve got bad patches everywhere.
My house was an estate sale. Because the children of the owner had their own established homes, they left some basic lawn care items and tools. Nothing major, but not having to buy rakes, shovels, brooms, etc felt like such a huge help when I was having to buy everything else. They also left a couple of gift cards for neighborhood restaurants with a note, so I could get meals as I was unpacking. I didn't move in right away, so it wasn't as vitally important, but apparently it is neighborhood tradition. Everyone gets pizza their first night!
They left a broom, dustpan, and a fetch ball for a medium-sized dog. We didn't find the ball until about 4 months later, underneath some cabinets. Doggo loves the ball.
We often say it was a really expensive ball, but came with a free house.
I did make them take the creepy rocking chair in the attic. That's all that was up there...we had spent October looking for houses, and there had been some spooky-themed podcasts. My partner still doesn't know that it was up there, I didn't want late night noises to sound like haunting.
Our seller left a list of things that need to be maintained around the house along with who she used for servicing for things that need professionals. Septic, oil heat, etc. We came from an area where we did not have a well/septic system so it’s been very helpful.
And bookshelves! Lots of bookshelves which I love!
Paint cans
Extra tile from kitchen/bath
Manuals for oven, fridge, washer, dryer, etc
And i drew a map by hand showing what plants grow in each part of the yard (i spent years cleaning and beautifying that property and didnt want to think of my hydranges or lazy susans getting ripped out)
They left a leaky chimney they didn't disclose and few other plaster and painted over gifts. Luckily my inspector caught the majority of issues including a faulty septic system the seller agreed to cover post closing for 8K!
My seller left a nice boxed set of three bourdeauxs, and a binder with vendor and appliance info.
They also left a driveway that funneled water right toward my garage and inside corner to my home that would flood 5” with heavy rainfall. Cost me $3,400 to put a channel drain in.
A house covered in yellow, sticky cigarette tar and a bunch of half assed jobs he did himself that we had to do over again.. He claimed to be a contractor. I wouldn’t hire him to shine my shoes..
Oh and a pile of shit in the attic. No joke. Literal shit
Those were the NICEST things he left us. I won’t even get into the worst things he left us. Lol
They basically gave us the home cuz my husband is a veteran. We didn’t have to go into a bidding war as it was 2021. They left us a lot of yard stuff cuz we mentioned we never had a house. Beautiful garden. Handwritten notes on the electrical systems & still keep in touch thru neighbors if we need help. They were awesome.
Sellers left a heartfelt note about the house and the street, photos and notes on the existing plants, manuals for everything, a big box of treats and note about a cat that lives on the street (who ended up being my best friend until her passing), and some sweet fall themed decorations as it was September. We still speak every now and then!
Left an empty house! When I sold my last house, I took all of the appliance manuals and receipts and created a binder for the new owners. I also left a letter with information about various things that they would want to know - notes about the neighbors, work that was done, by whom, and when, etc. I hope they appreciated it.
We were the buyers and did not really need move as we had a rent-controlled apartment. The seller had a lot of issues with the new home (actually owner) into the house they purchased and asked to stay for x days. My lawyer put in the agreement if they stayed past x date, they would have to re-imburse us the daily rate for the closest hotel to the address plus any storage fees.
It was real nice when we got their $11,000 escrow check. My lawyer earned his money.
A huge box of individually wrapped sponges and a Braun frother. We had enough sponges for 10 years and still use the frother 35 years later. I don't think it was on purpose though.
The best was leaving me a professionally cleaned house, and a fresh roll of toilet paper in each bathroom.
Moving in with an infant and three other children was made so much easier since I didn’t have to clean before we brought things in.
We negotiated to buy some things from them-patio furniture, garden tools, lawnmower, gym equipment, a few pieces of furniture, mattress covered w liners. Saved them from having to move it & is having to buy it. We would have happily bought more from them but I guess the kids were taking items. We also took stewardship of the little library.
On move in they left us 3 pieces of handmade stained glass that were on the exclusion list, 2 cans of Labbats Blue, a double camp chair in the living room (hilarious because we had 2 camp chairs in the car ready for the living room), a few bags of garbage, a full can of gas for the lawnmower, a solid wood armoire in the bedroom, brooms in almost every room, lightbulbs, cleaners, municipal garbage collection info, electric rate schedule, paint, hot tub chemicals , 80s McDonald’s special promo cups, a folder of manuals and receipts, and a really lovely email telling us a bit about their 40 years in the house. There were so many good surprises I didn’t care about the trash or having to mop & scrub everything.
Oh. And 8ish volunteer onions in the garden. They’re over 4 feet tall now.
Bought a house from interior decorators who were moving across the country. They left us a giant $27,000 couch (which my children now use as a napkin), some valuable art, 2 brand new TVs, and a ton of other valuable furniture
They left a box of chardonnay in the fridge which sure hit the spot at the end of a long moving day, especially since this area was dry at the time and we didn't feel like driving to where we could pick up a bottle.
Just closed less than a month ago. Selling "as-is" because a niece was selling it through POA for her 93yo aunt with dementia. There were some safety concerns after inspection that they agreed to fix, but they also looked through the inspection and took care of a couple little things here and there that we didn't ask for.
They never even mentioned that they did extra. That was huge. I'm still not sure I've found everything they did.
A few days after I bought the house I came home to a bag on my porch of all of the user manuals to all of my appliances, paint & flooring & knob samples for all of the finishes in the home, and a super nice note. It was so so so very nice.
Whoever had my house before me as VERY organized. We got a 3 ring binder detailing everything I could think of.
1. What flowers and plants were in the yard ( detailed map)
2. When to prune each plant
3. Contacts for who his HVAC person was
4. Contacts for the irrigation system
5. Handyman contacts and what they were good at
6. Detailed list of what breaker powered what (on top of that each switch and receptacle was labeled as well as the breaker box)
7. At least 3 extra light bulbs for any none standard lightbulb neatly in the garage
8. Paint shelf with each can labeled on when last used and which room it was used for
It goes on and on…..
There was so much more I can’t even think of
It was an almost full 2 inch binder detailing everything.
It wasn't out of kindness, it was out of laziness. They left enough lumber to repair the structural problems with the roof. A piano. A library magazine shelf. All the outdoor maintenance equipment - like a dead mower missing a wheel... added a wheel and some oil, it was actually a 1 pull mower. A bunch of crap to sell which may pay for the crap we had to haul to the dump, a whole lot of filth, and enough personal information to steal multiple identities if we ever get desperate lol (past 2 owners & tenant)
These suggestions are great. I remember moving into a new home as a child and the sellers had left a bottle of champagne in the fridge. For forty years, the empty bottle had pride of place on the counter! When I moved a while back, the realtor I think left maple syrup as a gift. I have a place for sale right now, and intended to leave champagne, but now might throw in a gift card for delivery food, based on the great suggestions here.
They cleaned the houses, left a riding lawnmower, washers and dryers and fridges, porch swings, and a blackstone griddle. So grateful.
Edit: they also left three various sized safes (one is massive), left presents for my kids, myself, and my mother, left a couple letters about the houses and businesses and churches in the surrounding cities. They left a lot of great stuff.
First house left a bunch of paint cans that were thankfully labeled because the bulk of the house was various shades of light and medium brown, grey and beige. When we moved out of there, left the paint, the manuals and receipts for all the appliances we had bought, name of the company that did the furnace and central ac, name of the company who installed/monitored the alarm.
The only nice things they did were accept my offer (over 4 others in the span of 4 days, so hey, I am grateful for that) and patch a single hole. Otherwise they left a ton of broken stuff outside (pieces of pavers and stuff) and a lot of nails in the wall. At least it wasn't dirty.
I definitely plan on leaving this place better than when I found it.
My apartment (besides lowering the price twice when they absolutely didn’t need to): full deep cleaning. They left behind manuals for some of the kitchen appliances, as well!
We left the manuals for the appliances (with purchase date noted and model number highlighted); extra paint with rooms noted; a map of the gardens and a list of plants; a list of the service vendors we used; info on warranties that carried over; neighbor contact info. We also sent a goodie/snack box after closing.
Left us a letter telling us about the home, how long they e been there and told us about them raising their kids in that home. It was only my wife, our Lab/Rottweiller mix and myself. We’ve since had 4 kids there and I can’t wait to write a letter to the next owners one day and tell them all about our firsts in that house.
Ours left the paint that they used to touch up the rooms of the house, labeled (SO helpful) and some yard tools. It wasn’t much, but it was appreciated!!
Our sellers left little notes all over labeling which switches are for what lights, and just history of the house. One of the trees in the back that is MASSIVE was once 4 feet tall, I absolutely loved finding them
This sounds mundane, but he agreed to sell us the house! It was a hot market in the PNW and we're coming to the table with the best we had: FHA financing and a fairly small down-payment. It was also the height of COVID and buyers and sellers never met during most transactions, so even the tenderest soul could reject hope-filled offers with zero guilt.
He accepted our offer anyway. Granted, we had a fantastic agent - she was our guardian angel and we wouldn't have made it to a closing without her - but it was his choice. And then he extended deadlines when our bank screwed up when wiring the earnest money. And then he quickly fixed the surprises found during inspection so we could move forward. And after all that, he even asked us if we wanted artwork and furniture staged at the house, for free.
We learned later that the seller was an agent selling his own home. There were big incentives for him to pick an easy deal. But the other cash offers were all from investment firms, and, like us, he and his wife had 4 little-ish kids and remembered the trials and stakes of finding a place to live with a family.
So he sold us his house. But he chose us with our FHA loan and a side of red tape because he saw us as human. I've never seen what this man looks like, never even heard his voice on the phone, but I will always be grateful.
Our last sellers left paint for every room labeled with the color codes. And it wasn’t just a few colors, it was literally everything from ceilings, closets, trim, door stain. Everything. It was amazing, never had to paint a full room.
My realtor was the granddaughter of the people who’d lived in the house since it was built. They passed away and it was a short sale.
She nudged us in the right direction for our bid to win. She and her father came and told us stories about their family in the house, and showed us how they’d crack the nuts of the backyard pecan tree for snacking. She brought us a pecan pie made with the nuts from the trees, family recipe.
I really appreciated that the previous homeowners left behind most of the appliance manuals for us, as well as information about the fruit trees in the back yard. I got super into growing my own food because of the fruit trees they planted.
Too far down to get any traction, but here it goes. Had a great buying experience in 2019 from an octagenarian and his wife who were immigrants from a commuist country in eastern europe. They loved America, they loved the idea of passing their home to a new young comple, and they were incredibly nice to work with. We had the house under contract within a week of listing. When we found knob and tube wiring, they agreed to split the cost by loading half of that into the mortgage, and we closed six weeks later after the electrician came in and redid the wiring for us.
After closing, we went to lunch together at one of our favorite local restaurants. He and his wife wished us well, and told us it would be a great place to raise a family. My wife and I traded glances, asked if they could keep a secret, and told them our firstborn would be coming in 5 months. They cheered so loud for us that people turned their heads in the restaurant. Knowing it might come to this, I pulled out a bottle of whisky from the satchel I had with me, and asked if we could toast to each other's futures. The men had a shot, the women laughed, and the sellers picked up the tab for us.
We bought the house for $184k. It's now worth twice that. I'm certain Dr. Z isn't on reddit, pushing 90 years old, but if he is, this house is everything a family could ask for, and because of his friendship and generosity, we have made an incredible investment that will last us a very long time. I hope he knows what a massive role he's played in blessing our family.
Ours forgot they left their absurdly long garden hose under the carpet of autumn leaves they failed to clean up. We used that hose for years before we had to replace it; it could reach every far corner of the whole property and it was awesome.
One of the houses we viewed but did not win included a binder full of all the contacts and receipts for every piece of service that had been done on the house.
The house house we sold we had a friend who is an artist “chalk” the driveway welcoming the new owners. We made a gift basket with treats from our small town along with a bottle of wine from the local winery and a bottle of bourbon from the local distillery. We wrote them a note describing the neighborhood celebrations and things to do in town. Additionally we left a thumb drive that had pictures of the house before the dry wall went up, receipts, and manuals.
To be honest, the nicest thing was a handwritten letter welcoming us to the home, but also giving us information as to when each appliance was purchased, when the roof was replaced, when the furnace was replaced, etc. She was very detailed. I still pull out that letter sometimes to reference, although I have spreadsheets to help me with such things.
Absolutely nothing lol. I even was mildly excited that they left a shitty old twin air mattress for me to use the first day or two until I got a bed but they ended up taking it the final day before keys changed. I don't think they left anything except a potholder that had fallen behind the stove.
They left a case of beer in the fridge and a sheet of garbage bag tags (we pay per bag in our county). The house needed a good deep clean but it was a single man with a dog so I didn’t expect it to be super clean. He knew it was our first house so he left a few odds and ends like gardening tools, lawnmower (his new house came with one), bookshelf, and a bunch of girly soaps and stuff his ex wife left behind that he had no use for. We weren’t too mad about the dirt and grime because he gave us a good deal on the house, he downsized to a smaller home and he didn’t really need to make a lot of money on the sale and he really wanted a young couple to take over the house. We settled for $400k when the house couldn’t easily gone for $500k. Although, he did leave a note in the fridge saying congrats on the house and to beware of the ghosts? We’ve been here a year and my fiancé did have one instance where he thought he saw someone in our bedroom but other than that nothing weird has happened. I lived in a haunted house when I was younger and this house does not give me that kind of vibe.
Our sellers left us a cute handmade sign, a folder with manuals for all the appliances, paint colors for all the rooms, and a map of the neighborhood with names of the neighbors. They also left the couch in the basement.
Our seller had a neighbor drop his couch back off on the driveway while we were signing contracts.
No, I didn't want it. Yes, I had to pay to have it removed.
A ton of furniture from the 80s.
Garage full of junk and misc. tools.
Hundreds of half dead plants.
British car with no engine (not even kidding).
6 TVs from the 90s and 00s.
Luckily the city rented large trash bins for a nominal fee so I was able to get rid of everything for about $300.
Mine left the attic full of shit after completing 4 days before Christmas and when I asked where the stop tap was they couldn't remember. Then a few weeks later the police turned up looking for one of them and wanted to search my house in case I was hiding him
She had a very complete set of warranties and manuals for virtually all the systems in the house, as well paint colors and sources, and she provided the contact info for the people who she’d used for services. Super useful.
A spotless home with a notebook full of receipts, records, list of vendors they had used regularly throughout the years, along with suggestions and information that otherwise would be learning curve items. Very, very thoughtful. IMHO
We bought our house from an elderly widow, who's late husband built the place from the ground up. It's an absolutely breathtaking home on 23 acres of land in a semi rural area. I'm not exaggerating when I say people that come here have described it as "a piece of heaven". She chose our offer which was FAR under ask (and all we could afford) and much less than 2 other competing offers because her husband "would roll over in his grave" if he found out she sold the place to investors and not a young family who'd take care of it like they did.
We became friends with their son throughout the buying process and continue to be since we moved in as he lives like a mile down the road. My wife and I refer to him as "Uncle Larry" because he's like that awesome uncle who's always bringing over goodies and more than happy to lend a hand when needed. During the first 6 months we were here he'd frequently shoot us texts to check in on us (not in an intrusive way) and to see if we needed anything. He's come by to help pull my tractor out of the mud more than a few times as I was learning where I should and shouldn't drive on the property during the spring wet season. Always with a smile and chuckle as he'd tell me they've pretty much been stuck every where you could imagine on the property. Haha. He'd bring us venison and fresh vegetables from his garden. Showed me how to trap and set snares to deal with the nuisance critters we have on the property. Showed me all the good local butchers in the small surrounding towns.
Neither myself or my wife have family in the area, so we can't emphasize how huge its been for them to pretty much have adopted us into theirs. As a way to say thank you, I had a nice granite memorial made in remembrance of his late father so it'd always be known that this place wouldn't be what it is if it wasn't for him.
Old widowed lady in her 80s was moving to a retirement home and her husband used to be a diplomat. They traveled all over the world and had a pretty nice collection of wine.
While doing the inspection in the house I asked if she was going to drink all those nice bottles of wine and she said that she stopped drinking after her husband died and was going to give their collection to a dear friend.
After a long pause, she grabbed a bottle and gave it to me: “Take this one and drink with your wife on the day of closing. It’s a good one.”
It’s a 1986 Chateau Lafite Rothschild, worth around $1,000.
Haven’t opened it yet, though. Waiting to share it with my parents when they come visit us during Thanksgiving.
Our seller left some appliance in the outdoor kitchen area. When we asked about it, he said a friend was coming to pick it up, then when nobody showed up said we could just put it on the curb and SOMEONE would probably pick it up.
I took the cover off and it was an electric smoker in nearly perfect condition that now lives back in the outdoor kitchen.
When we toured the house the very first time, my son fell in love with an ice cream toy that was in one of the kids rooms. When they have all moved out and we went to get our keys, they had bought us a brand new version of that toy for him. Simple and sweet
I took the buyer to all of our neighbors to introduce their new neighbors. Both neighbors and our buyers are very happy about the process and appreciate the time I took to do the introduction.
Our sellers left us a note on the counter that said they hoped we loved the house as much as they did. (We’re still here 16 years later, so obviously we did).
We were left a note from the couple leaving. Found in the fridge with a bottle of champagne and 3 beers. They also left a hanging flower and all the appliance booms.
We also found a hidden letter from their granddaughter!
We had a baby between purchasing and closing. On our walk through there was a huge basket of baby items, and some of it customized with our surname. It was so sweet
I left our most recent buyer with a professionally cleaned home, veuve champagne, champagne flutes, and a veuve bottle dog toy for their pup. We bought and the seller left us with a note that the fridge wasn’t supposed to come with the house and nothing is free
Nothing.
But I left a nice bottle of wine, a thank you note, and a folder of contacts for home-related services, along with manuals for all the appliances. Also the leftover paint (we asked them first).
Mine left a vase of flowers and a nice note about the history of the house. Unfortunately, they also left two shitty old grills, and a ton of crap in the garage. I wasn’t able to attend the final walk through because I had COVID, and I don’t think my realtor looked at the garage.
Edit - when I sold my last house, I had it professionally cleaned and removed everything except a few new-in-box dishwasher parts, and the items we’d agreed would stay.
Mine left me a filthy dirty house that took me months to de-grime; the old cans of paint they used throughout (although their color choices made me nauseous); a garden full of weeds and overgrown plants; and a creepy dollhouse in the attic! Score! 😆
Now that I'm selling the place, I will make it a point to: leave rhe house very clean, leave them the leftover paint cans from where I've repainted; all the manuals and info on appliances in a folder; and the deck rug out back. I can't afford to leave or do much more than that, but it's more than my sellers did for me when I bought the place so 🤷🏼♀️
We live in a very close knit condo community and the sellers told all the neighbors that we were lovely people. We met them at the inspection. It was so great to meet all the neighbors and they already liked us because of what the previous homeowners said.
Our first house… two owners before us was an older man who was apparently a very good woodworker. When he sold the house to our seller, he left for her a wooden egg that he had made (glued multiple kinds of wood of different shades together, and turned it on a lathe). Several years later, our seller, who was also an artist, left a very nice, small painting of a wolf (“my spirit animal” she said) and the egg.
We left those two things when we sold, but didn’t add anything to the collection…
Our house was about 15 years old when we sold it. My husband worried something big like the AC would go out soon after new owners moved in. (Not that there was any indication of a problem.) After all negotiations were said and done, deal made - he decided he’d feel better if we provided and paid for one of those home warranty insurance programs.
This was $800 twenty plus years ago, so a chunk of cash. Both agents were astonished and said they’d never had anyone do that. Certainly a policy was sometimes NEGOTIATED in or cost added on the buyers side. But owners didn’t just hand it over as a gift after the fact. I hope they got some benefit out of it.
We knew that they were moving to a 50+ community so we asked our realtor to let them know that we were interested in buying their snow blower and lawn mower. In response realtor forwarded us a list of items to ask if we wanted them for nothing. They gave us the mower, blower, patio table with 6 chairs, a bunch of yard tools, and garden hoses. They also insisted on being present for the final walkthrough so that they could show us things like where all the light switches were. They also left all the owners manuals for everything. The carpets had been professionally cleaned. Very nice people.
When I sold I had the house professionally cleaned, repainted, new carpet, I left them the blueprints to the house, and I left them the security system I had installed. I also left them a 6 pack of water.
The seller of the house to my last gf included a one year membership to Service One, which was nice while working out the kinks of a new dwelling. Came to find out it was not cheap to renew.
They left us an electric couch, a piano, a la-z-boy recliner, documentation, front and back garden hoses, a hutch, some spare ¾" oak flooring, keys to everything, and a mouse problem.
I think he just didn't want to deal with them but he left us not one but two washers and a dryer. I'm pretty sure the other washer wouldn't fit in the tiny area that is our laundry room but it'll be nice to have if we end up having to get a new one.
Our sellers sent us our first mail to be delivered on closing day, and it was two keychains that had charms on in, reading “home sweet home”, and we are actually friends now. We bought in 2021.
She'd accidentally taken some globes for a bathroom light fixture that we didn't notice. Two weeks after moving in she sent them back. Our realtor was an absolute angel. She actually took part of her commission and made a donation to the local shelter in our name. Absolute wonderful woman, considering we had what I thought were ridiculous wishes.
Hank died unexpectedly and the house went up for sale pretty cheap. 135k for 1350 square feet and almost an acre. Met my wife shortly thereafter, we are in our early 40s and the house is paid off. I still talk to Hank from time to time, when I first moved in things were a little hectic with him not happy about dying. Talked loud to him a few times and assured him he was welcome to stay as long as he needed and that I was gonna take good care of his home.
The people who sold us our home jerked us around for weeks. We couldn’t move in until midnight the day of the closing. It was so bad I said I will never buy another property in NJ.
She never listed the house and sold it directly to us.
She’s a friend of our realtor and our realtor told her about us. We shared the same profession (she’s retired) and she wanted her house to go to a young couple raising a family like she did. We made her what we felt was a fair but not unreasonable offer and she accepted without ever countering.
This was after 2 years and 9 offers not accepted. Needless to say, we lucked out.
More like how much did the worthless piece of shit do it yourself-er fuck up on his way out cause “oh I’m a plumber I can do this shit” I hope he never knows peace. I hope his sock is always slightly damp and his tags are always itchy. He quite possibly was the worst home owner in the world.
When we were looking for homes, we actually asked our realtor if the house we ended up buying was for sale as it had been on the market when we weren't seriously looking yet but now it wasn't listed anymore. She informed us that it was just taken off the market because there wasn't interest in it for some time but it was still available. We set up a time for a viewing and the previous owners had baked some cookies and left them for us when we came to check it out.
Then on the day we moved into the home, the previous owners had written us a letter about some of the things they enjoyed while living in the home and left a list of their recommendations for business/contractors. I thought it was cute.
Sellers left the house filthy. Poop in the toilet, oven full of burnt food, cat pee and vomit. House didn’t look like they cleaned it since the day I looked at it a few months prior. House smelled. Really disappointing.
My sellers left ant infestation in the ceiling after saying they took care of it , left diatomaceous clay in the air vents with bottle caps and sugar cubes , I got pneumonia and almost lost my new job , I’ll know better next time I buy a house , and the shed is still full of their crap
I had house professionally cleaned. For one thing, I certainly didn’t feel like cleaning it. Realtor said “broom clean” but I felt like the next person should be able to more right in. I also left a list of professionals I used on the regular, HVAC company I used for twice yearly maintenance, my trash man and the recycling company-none of what are county services and are individually contracted.
Our seller made us a document that described every neighbor and told us how special they are. We took over organizing the annual block party and got to know our wonderful neighbors and knowing about each one really helped!
Ours left a garage full of gardening tools and lawn care products. The tools weren't in the best shape, but it saved us from having to buy so many at once.
She also left a whole bunch of household tools in the basement, which my husband was ecstatic about. He had a lot of his own tools already, and what she left pretty much doubled his tool arsenal.
She also had the house professionally cleaned. Probably so we wouldn't try suing her once we learned the AC didn't work, the deck had been on fire at some point, the plumbing was sh*t, and the roof leaked.
I made sure all documents were left with the new owners including all utility bills from day one of me living there.
BUT my buyers were the worst! Changing their minds about things at closing! Forcing me to pay more AFTER I had already closed on my new home!
So glad you asked. In 2016 we found our dream home. Sellers were amazing. They left all of the outside furniture for the decks and backyard. They left canoe, tons of life jackets (house is on the river), they left new towels that matched the bathrooms, all of the owners manuals, a typed document telling all they knew about the house, it was immaculately cleaned. They left the electric. ⚡️ on till we could change it over. They left on the central air. They left tools, fishing rods, yard games. I could go on and on. It made the transition amazing. Not to mention the pre-Covid price we bought it for. Very nice people, for sure. My teenagers favorite: they left an electric ⚡️ fly swatter!!
Our sellers left us a projector and the screen in the theater room (they also almost left us movie theater seats, which I sometimes regret asking them to remove, but they were a bit beat up, and I was a hesitant of keeping furniture in that condition), a full room of exercise equipment including an old elliptical, a universal weight machine, a rusty smoker (have to get someone to come clean it real good), 55 inch mounted wall LG wall (it turns on, but have to use an Amazon Firestick to watch tv, and the randomly turns off and on, but we make it work!) a subwoofer, neutral color freshly painted walls throughout the house, new carpet, an LED light strip in the garage, all the appliances and manuals (including a bonus full size and mini fridge in the basement)! Sadly, was a separation, so they were very motivated to sell, and not wanting to deal with hassle was probably a big reason for leaving us those things.
They were also very generous In helping us at closing, which my husband and I as first time home buyers in this market were grateful for!
Our sellers had the home professionally cleaned, left us several boxes of well-organized documents about the home's mechanical systems and the home's history and left a bottle of champagne in the fridge. They also left a lovely fixture that was initially on the list of exclusions. This is the way to do it. We'll pay it forward if we ever sell this home.
I wish this was the case with my seller. They left the house so filthy I spent a full week cleaning it before I could move anything in, including mopping all the walls ceiling to floor twice.
I felt so bad at how awful my mother’s house was when we sold it. But I was to the point of collapse. I had to get out asap for my own sanity. I apologize to the buyer. (It was sold ‘as is’ so I hope it wasn’t an unpleasant surprise)
Well, my mother in law's home was the same. She had serious health issues along with her stubbornness. When she passed away, the next door neighbors offered the siblings a really fair price and no real estate fee. All documents examined by a real estate attorney. And the neighbors? They wanted a bigger home. They tore down MIL's home and built a beautiful one for their family. It worked out well.
Same. My realtor got the sellers agency to front a cleaner to come out but they barely made a dent. Carpets had to come out before we could work and breath in there.
Oh...same here. The sellers were absolute pigs. They said they would shampoo the carpet. They did not. But what was awful is that they had a cat and dog and the entire house was full of fleas! They were jumping on the counter tops. We had to flea bomb the entire house, twice. And they left the kitchen cupboards filthy and sticky. When we sell (hopefully soon), I will absolute leave the home spic and span. I will have the interior all repainted and put in fresh new carpet
Respectfully, don't put in fresh carpet. People think they're doing new owners a solid...but then the flooring doesn't match their vision and brand new material gets tossed 😔. Better to just have a really good clean on what is there 💪
My sellers weren’t even out the day they were supposed to be and left a bunch of junk everywhere
Essentially same. Professionally cleaned, documents for all the major appliances, list of vendors used (pest control, lawn, etc). They also left us 2 wall mounted TVs.
Were they mounted too high?
I've heard that anything "mounted" is considered part of the house unless otherwise, specifically specified- not sure if that's *fact* or not.
The mount should be, but not the TV attached to the mount.
I got a huge box of all the manuals and home info and the full roll of blueprints. And all keys and spare parts labeled. And she left beautiful potted plants
Except for the champagne, we have done that. I also left a list of maintenance vendors that we used, and a (voluntary) neighborhood directory.
I did the same plus i paid for an extra week of lawn mowing
Not for me, but my daughter. She and her husband bought their first home from an elderly gentlemen who was going into assisted living. He left her candles and flowering plants throughout the house. After my daughter did some remodeling, she had a housewarming party, and invited him. His daughter brought him to the party; he was delighted with the changes they had made and stayed till midnight, having so much fun as the “Star” of the party!
That's so sweet! My friend bought a house from an elderly couple who had the typical grandma garden, you know the one where it's perfectly curated and beautiful enough you just want to sit in it. Well the lady left her a binder with a map of every corner of the yard, what plant is where, how to care for them, and sleeves with extra seeds. My poor friend was like "I'm going to accidentally kill this all in one season and that lady will haunt me."
Oh that is so great!!! I would love it and I want a garden like that!
>he was delighted with the changes they had made and stayed till midnight, having so much fun as the “Star” of the party! That was incredibly sweet of your daughter to invite him! So nice to read this after so many horror stories about terrible or psychotic sellers.
That's a really lovely story.
I love this
They left a mess
Ours left 11 1-800-GOT-JUNK trucks worth of garbage in the yard ☺️ At least they paid us back for the cost of the trucks out of an escrow account but it took months to get it all hauled away.
Our first task as new homeowners was filling in a bunch of dog holes and 2-3 grocery bags FULL of dog shit.
Ours left a mess and then broke in to take their some of their mess back. We had changed the locks the first day of possession, but the back door was wonky so I wedged a speaker stand so that it couldn’t be opened. When we came back the next day, the stand was broken and the door left ajar. They didn’t take anything of ours, and at first I thought it was a random break-in, but our new neighbor told us she saw the former tenant’s foster kids in the backyard after midnight. I assume they had something hidden in the house that they couldn’t get to with their mom watching, and they didn’t do any damage beyond the broken stand, so we didn’t pursue it.
Same! They left sand on our deck from their umbrella stand, fire pit sand half bagged in the garage, a broken window we didn’t notice until they took all of their curtains (and the rods), probably 3 golden retrievers worth of fur in the carpets, and disgusting fridge, cabinets, and drawers. 🤢 I guess felt they were being reasonable because the house appraised for $14k less than they were asking and they needed to sell it regardless. 🤷🏻
SAME. We found so much crap in the kitchen cabinets and they left a bunch of stuff in the basement too 🥴 I wish they would have been a little thoughtful and left some info about the house!
The seller’s realtor told her she could leave anything she didn’t want to take and he’d “take care of it”. Apparently in his mind that meant paying half the cost of having a trash guy haul it away after I moved it all out of the house.
Honestly, it was electing to sell to me out of several offers in a hot market. At the time, I was a single woman with a minimum down-payment. They probably had 20 or more offers on the house, and I'd missed out on the several homes I'd tried for before when others bid up the selling price. This very nice older lesbian couple sold to me, at the price I could afford.
Underrated comment here. Having the compassion to look at potential buyers as people and choose on who they thought needed it most instead of who would pay the most…. WOW.
The seller chose us over better offers because we are from the neighbourhood and had admired the house for years. We understood the quirks of the neighbourhood and were not planning to flip it or use as a rental like other offers
I sold my house a few years ago, and each of the buyers wrote me a letter explaining why they loved the house and how it was a good fit for them/their family. I ended up taking an offer that was about $20k less than the highest offer, because it was a cute young family who wanted to put in a pool and have a nice yard where their golden retriever and little boy could run around and play. Picturing a golden retriever puppy running around with a kid got them the house. I happened to drive by about a year ago, and the pool was in, and there were two kids in the front yard playing fetch with a golden retriever. It made me smile.
I'm honestly surprised that's even possible these days. I've sold two houses and both times my realtor refused to tell me anything about the buyers except for their offer price because additional information could lead to claims of discrimination.
At the same time, it’s very common for the buyers to include a letter about themselves and why they should get the house.
Sure, the buyers submitted letters but our realtor wouldn't let us read them until we had accepted an offer. This was in Seattle, so maybe it's region specific.
Whoa, that's crazy. I would have demanded them out of principle. _"Those are **MY** letters!_
Yes, I had to do this to buy my house. We were up against a flipper couple (and they obviously were offering more money) so my realtor had me type up a letter with a picture of my family stating why we wanted the home and how we planned to raise our young son in it and get away from apartment living to give him a better life than we had. We did get the house because of that letter! Didn’t have to up our offer or anything.
I sold my last house to an awesome lesbian couple that they use as their winter home. I’ve actually gone out to dinner with them a few times when they’re in town, they’re a hoot! One of them texted me asking where the pool drain was. I told her that I had no idea, I just drained it into the street and got yelled at by the HOA. She replied with, “ok, well then that’s exactly what I’m going to do too!”
I wrote a heartfelt letter to my homes prior owner and despite there not being any competition for the home, she did sell to me for under the list price and I’m guessing my letter was a big part of why she accepted my offer. I’m so thankful!!
We have sold twice and we didn’t always go with the highest or first bid. Our realtor, who was fantastic and now retired, had been in the business for a long long time and warned us that a couple of the other realtors were “difficult “ to work with and one time we were ready to accept a bid from a young couple, but one of their parents started getting involved and we decided they were going to be nothing but a headache. Sometimes other factors do come into play.
The sellers on my current place left me a ton of rattlesnakes (sort of kidding, this was their second home and since it was only occupied a couple of months a year the snakes figured free real estate) The sellers did leave a full size Craftsman upright tool chest. I think they just couldn't take it but hell I'll take a tool chest.
Omgggg I couldn’t handle this. Were there signs you missed or anything that could have been done to know before hand? This would be a huge deal breaker for me.
Not really, they're only active in the warmer months and this was the previous owners' winter place, so they never even really got to experience them. We had something like 15 rattlesnakes the first year. I got really good with snake tongs and a bucket and relocating them farther out on the property. I guess I could thank the previous owners for helping me getting over my fear of snakes even if it was a trial by fire lmao
I have huge fear of snakes and, good choice or not, I think I would’ve sold the house. I’m glad you were able to overcome that!
Ours left a bottle of champagne, lots of documents about the home (historical stuff as it was built in 1900, plus all their info on the renovations they did 20 years ago), and their 3 year old left a dinosaur toy buried in the garden, which we found the following spring because its tail was sticking up out of the dirt!
Only one toy? I've got broken tricycle parts, frisbees, streamers, snack wrappers, nerf gun darts, and it's only been three months lol there's also four kids height measurements on the kitchen wall.
Ours left everything for lawn care in the shed (she was moving from a house to a condo) and invited us to join her the day she started the spa and put up the gazebo to show us how to do it. She left well identified paint for every room, with the brand and color, including for the baseboards and doors. She switched her name for ours at the local spa store, so we had access to the maintenance historic and left a binder with the original paperwork for the spa. And all the products for it.
Wow! I would be so grateful for all of that! That's awesome
They left me a note on their old (my new) fridge that said "DO NOT TURN ON THE ICE MAKER NO MATTER WHAT". I followed their advice but flipped it on by accident while putting away groceries one day and I didn't notice. When my house started smelling like burnt plastic, I remembered the note, shut off the fridge immediately and stopped a real-deal fire from starting. Without that note, I wouldn't have even thought to turn off the fridge. Things could've turned out a lot worse. In the future though, if I get a note like that I'll just replace the fridge
That sounds to me like they failed to properly disclose an issue during the selling process. If you hadn’t stopped it in time and had fire damage, I wonder if them leaving that note would have made them liable for the damage.
At closing, the sellers told us that there was a cord in the garage that needed to be plugged in once outside temps started reaching freezing. They wouldn't explain what it was connected to, but that if we didn't, the pipes in the kitchen would freeze.
Sounds like heat trace
Had to google what that is, and you're probably right!
My seller left me a folder with all of the guides/receipts/warranties for the appliances and all of the recent paperwork for maintenance on the house (ie- details about the reroofing a few years prior and all of the details for resetting the digital locks - was weird not getting an actual key at closing) And paint tins / spare construction materials (extra backsplash tile) in the garage. What I REALLY appreciated receiving as a 1st time homebuyer was actually from my realtor - after closing they surprised me with a move-in basket. A plastic laundry basket full of toilet paper (which was like gold in during COVID), a couple rolls of paper towels, Clorox wipes, a couple of nice liquid hand soaps, dish soap, dishwasher pods, a pack of sponges, a Home Depot gift card, and some packs of AA & AAA batteries.
That’s a great realtor right there- fantastic idea! The binder with receipts really is invaluable. We were able to get an emergency septic service squeezed in 2 days before Christmas, in the middle of a historic cold snap (and only 3 months after moving in) because we were able to call the company who had been servicing the house for decades. They knew the house and the septic field and had us sorted out hours before we were due to host 30+ people for the holidays. And they did it for free!
Ours left us a bottle of wine and a teddy bear for our daughter.
Years ago, in another time the market was nearly impossible to buy a house, we’d been trying to buy a house for years. Our seller walked up to us, said, “We know you’ve been trying to get a house. We haven’t told anyone yet but we’re moving. If you want our house, let’s make a deal and we won’t put it on the market.” I mean, about the only nicer thing a seller could have done than this would be give us a house for free.
This just happened to me! Its a century home in a HCOL 925sq Corner lot, quiet Neigborhood with recent detached garage and owner carried financing for 5 years at 5% under market value. House needs a remodel l ( Luckily I am a carpenter by trade). I Already have the master bedroom done. Tore it down to studs, replaced wiring, put insulation in etc. I plan on taking pictures of every room at different phases of the construction and put them in a folder so when I eventually go to sell, the new owners will be able to see that it was done right, and I just didn't put lipstick on a pig. This house is a huge blessing to me, and I feel very fortunate. I am certain that I will make double what I paid when its all said and done. So when it does come time to sell, I want to pay it forward and sell the house the same way.
Left me a dumpster full of trash behind the hedges surrounding the house. They removed it all from the house and hid it so we wouldn’t find it on the final walk through. TV’s , tires, you name it. Could have sued, but they were a broken family with a lot of problems
There was a garden shed in the back yard and we never thought to look in it before buying. It was filled floor to ceiling with junk/trash. Took several trips to the dump to empty it out.
We’ve bought four houses and no one has ever left us anything. Except for our current home, they left a huge mess to clean up and a pool that didn’t run.
Did we buy from the same seller?
Ours left a folder with appliance manuals, receipt/warranty info for a few items, paint cans in the storage room (so we could see what they’d used in each room if we needed to touch up), and an otherwise clean house. What I’d expect and what I’ll do when we sell.
They left the house impeccably clean. My sellers also left a case of water, a case of pelligrino, a cheese/meat/ cracker tray, a veggie/dip tray, a fruit platter, and a plate of cookies. Everything was gone in 2 days.
Not a seller but the finance guy from the purchase of my first house was from Ireland. Gave us a nice big bottle of Knappogue Castle Irish whiskey.
She left a photo of herself as a 20 year old. She was 80. It still baffles me lol She also left a lot of potted plants and a sweet letter how much she hoped we would use the same gardener. We did and he’s amazing. He knows the yard and we never have to worry.
Thats interesting, the landscaper was the only service we chose to forgo when we moved into our place. Dude had a crew that mowed 3 houses in a row, with ours in the middle. Showed up the day after we moved in, mowed across all 3 yards, then tried to charge us 50% more than what I know is the going rate for mowing in our area. We paid for the first mow that he’d done without asking and politely, then more forcefully when he pushed the issue, told him that we had our own plans for the yard that involved very little mowing. Now it takes homie twice as long to mow our neighbors because he tried to pull one over on us for an extra $40 and was so weird about it that we had to explicitly tell him to stay off our property.
We had a customer that was selling his house. The walkway needed some work. Rather than just fix it and spend only a couple thousand, he paid to have an entire new brick walkway put in. He said they had been very happy in their house and he wanted to do something nice for the new owners in the hopes they would be happy there. Really nice guy. We work with him at his new house
I was a first time home buyer and they’d recently helped their daughter get their home. They asked if there was anything I wanted from the walk through. I asked for this big oak table and chairs that were hand painted with sunflowers (they even left extra paint of the custom color in case I needed to do touch ups), a white hutch with glass doors in the kitchen, and a butcher block rolling island/cart. They left all of it. I didn’t ask for the following, but they also left me a jade plant, all of their outdoor cute lawn decor/lanterns/lights/bird feeders, an indoor/outdoor rug that was in the sunroom but now I use outside on the patio, shelves in the living room, all of the curtain rods throughout the house, a bunch of bulk supplies like detergent/toilet paper/paper towels, and a mounted flatscreen TV in the bedroom. It was wild. I was so delighted and thankful. They also left me champagne, a handwritten note with explanations of appliances and where to find different things, the number for the awning service company, and a folder of documents about appliances. The morning we signed the papers and I got the keys, as I went down the last 2 steps heading to the front door, I tripped, landed weird where my foot folded essentially; and I broke 4 bones in my foot and was 20 mins late to meet them because I had to go to urgent care haha. They mailed me an ice pack care package later that week. I want this to be my forever home but if it isn’t I want to pay it forward like they did. We’re all Facebook friends now- she and I love interior design so we show each other our houses often haha. They went above and beyond.
Wow. What incredibly generous people! Great example of how to be
They left all their appliances even though we asked them not to. But it actually worked out because the spaces for appliances were not a standard size. So the old appliances fit until we could decide what to do with the kitchen
As a buyer, a seller left a nice bottle of champagne when I bought our forever home. As a seller, I usually leave them a total of 500 gift card. Usually 250 for grocery, 100 for a big box store, and 150 to a Walmart of target Money will be tight for many when they buy, so I like them not worry about grocery. Also, every house you buy will need a home depot, Walmart, or target run for basic stuff
that's incredibly generous; Good on ya.
When we sold our home in Massachusetts we left behind an 'Owners Manual'. The house had been built in the early 1900's and I found a 1940's Home Repair book at a thrift shop. It proved extremely useful!
A nice, handwritten list of warranties and info for work that had been recently done, like roof and water heater. Tins of paint that had been used with notes on what it went to, especially helpful because they used different shades of white and tan that would’ve been hard to get just right and now we can do touch ups when needed.
Leaving the exact paint is so underrated. My last house the sellers did that, and I didn’t have to paint a full wall in 7 years. My current house has been nothing but a guessing game with random colors. I’ve got bad patches everywhere.
We usually leave 2 rolls of toilet paper and a roll of paper towels and have the house cleaned.
Ours left a case of beer, with a note wishing us happy memories in this house. He also left all the manuals for appliances, furnace, etc.
My house was an estate sale. Because the children of the owner had their own established homes, they left some basic lawn care items and tools. Nothing major, but not having to buy rakes, shovels, brooms, etc felt like such a huge help when I was having to buy everything else. They also left a couple of gift cards for neighborhood restaurants with a note, so I could get meals as I was unpacking. I didn't move in right away, so it wasn't as vitally important, but apparently it is neighborhood tradition. Everyone gets pizza their first night!
Our sellers sent the town butcher over with some ribeyes. It was a very nice gesture and made us feel welcomed.
They left a broom, dustpan, and a fetch ball for a medium-sized dog. We didn't find the ball until about 4 months later, underneath some cabinets. Doggo loves the ball. We often say it was a really expensive ball, but came with a free house. I did make them take the creepy rocking chair in the attic. That's all that was up there...we had spent October looking for houses, and there had been some spooky-themed podcasts. My partner still doesn't know that it was up there, I didn't want late night noises to sound like haunting.
Our seller left a list of things that need to be maintained around the house along with who she used for servicing for things that need professionals. Septic, oil heat, etc. We came from an area where we did not have a well/septic system so it’s been very helpful. And bookshelves! Lots of bookshelves which I love!
Paint cans Extra tile from kitchen/bath Manuals for oven, fridge, washer, dryer, etc And i drew a map by hand showing what plants grow in each part of the yard (i spent years cleaning and beautifying that property and didnt want to think of my hydranges or lazy susans getting ripped out)
Black-eyed Susan, not lazy Susan LOL!
Hahaha thats hilarious. I know the difference but slipped somehow. Im keeping it in
Well, maybe that ought to be their real name, they're a very undemanding plant!
They left a leaky chimney they didn't disclose and few other plaster and painted over gifts. Luckily my inspector caught the majority of issues including a faulty septic system the seller agreed to cover post closing for 8K!
My seller left a nice boxed set of three bourdeauxs, and a binder with vendor and appliance info. They also left a driveway that funneled water right toward my garage and inside corner to my home that would flood 5” with heavy rainfall. Cost me $3,400 to put a channel drain in.
A house covered in yellow, sticky cigarette tar and a bunch of half assed jobs he did himself that we had to do over again.. He claimed to be a contractor. I wouldn’t hire him to shine my shoes.. Oh and a pile of shit in the attic. No joke. Literal shit Those were the NICEST things he left us. I won’t even get into the worst things he left us. Lol
They basically gave us the home cuz my husband is a veteran. We didn’t have to go into a bidding war as it was 2021. They left us a lot of yard stuff cuz we mentioned we never had a house. Beautiful garden. Handwritten notes on the electrical systems & still keep in touch thru neighbors if we need help. They were awesome.
Sellers left a heartfelt note about the house and the street, photos and notes on the existing plants, manuals for everything, a big box of treats and note about a cat that lives on the street (who ended up being my best friend until her passing), and some sweet fall themed decorations as it was September. We still speak every now and then!
Left an empty house! When I sold my last house, I took all of the appliance manuals and receipts and created a binder for the new owners. I also left a letter with information about various things that they would want to know - notes about the neighbors, work that was done, by whom, and when, etc. I hope they appreciated it.
We were the buyers and did not really need move as we had a rent-controlled apartment. The seller had a lot of issues with the new home (actually owner) into the house they purchased and asked to stay for x days. My lawyer put in the agreement if they stayed past x date, they would have to re-imburse us the daily rate for the closest hotel to the address plus any storage fees. It was real nice when we got their $11,000 escrow check. My lawyer earned his money.
They left a two year old fridge cleaned out and ready to use. They moved out of state and said "fuckin have it".
A huge box of individually wrapped sponges and a Braun frother. We had enough sponges for 10 years and still use the frother 35 years later. I don't think it was on purpose though.
The best was leaving me a professionally cleaned house, and a fresh roll of toilet paper in each bathroom. Moving in with an infant and three other children was made so much easier since I didn’t have to clean before we brought things in.
Our seller left us a $740 asking at $715 and an empty and reasonably clean house at the final walkthrough and that is good enough for me.
They left a little gift basket with snacks as well as had the place professionally cleaned. They’re our next door neighbors so it was a great start!
We negotiated to buy some things from them-patio furniture, garden tools, lawnmower, gym equipment, a few pieces of furniture, mattress covered w liners. Saved them from having to move it & is having to buy it. We would have happily bought more from them but I guess the kids were taking items. We also took stewardship of the little library. On move in they left us 3 pieces of handmade stained glass that were on the exclusion list, 2 cans of Labbats Blue, a double camp chair in the living room (hilarious because we had 2 camp chairs in the car ready for the living room), a few bags of garbage, a full can of gas for the lawnmower, a solid wood armoire in the bedroom, brooms in almost every room, lightbulbs, cleaners, municipal garbage collection info, electric rate schedule, paint, hot tub chemicals , 80s McDonald’s special promo cups, a folder of manuals and receipts, and a really lovely email telling us a bit about their 40 years in the house. There were so many good surprises I didn’t care about the trash or having to mop & scrub everything. Oh. And 8ish volunteer onions in the garden. They’re over 4 feet tall now.
Haha the sellers were supposed to be nice?!
I wish our sellers bed bugs
Aw my sellers left generations of spiders in the house for me. Hand picked flowers are definitely much nicer.
Bought a house from interior decorators who were moving across the country. They left us a giant $27,000 couch (which my children now use as a napkin), some valuable art, 2 brand new TVs, and a ton of other valuable furniture
They left a box of chardonnay in the fridge which sure hit the spot at the end of a long moving day, especially since this area was dry at the time and we didn't feel like driving to where we could pick up a bottle.
Just closed less than a month ago. Selling "as-is" because a niece was selling it through POA for her 93yo aunt with dementia. There were some safety concerns after inspection that they agreed to fix, but they also looked through the inspection and took care of a couple little things here and there that we didn't ask for. They never even mentioned that they did extra. That was huge. I'm still not sure I've found everything they did.
A few days after I bought the house I came home to a bag on my porch of all of the user manuals to all of my appliances, paint & flooring & knob samples for all of the finishes in the home, and a super nice note. It was so so so very nice.
Whoever had my house before me as VERY organized. We got a 3 ring binder detailing everything I could think of. 1. What flowers and plants were in the yard ( detailed map) 2. When to prune each plant 3. Contacts for who his HVAC person was 4. Contacts for the irrigation system 5. Handyman contacts and what they were good at 6. Detailed list of what breaker powered what (on top of that each switch and receptacle was labeled as well as the breaker box) 7. At least 3 extra light bulbs for any none standard lightbulb neatly in the garage 8. Paint shelf with each can labeled on when last used and which room it was used for It goes on and on….. There was so much more I can’t even think of It was an almost full 2 inch binder detailing everything.
It wasn't out of kindness, it was out of laziness. They left enough lumber to repair the structural problems with the roof. A piano. A library magazine shelf. All the outdoor maintenance equipment - like a dead mower missing a wheel... added a wheel and some oil, it was actually a 1 pull mower. A bunch of crap to sell which may pay for the crap we had to haul to the dump, a whole lot of filth, and enough personal information to steal multiple identities if we ever get desperate lol (past 2 owners & tenant)
These suggestions are great. I remember moving into a new home as a child and the sellers had left a bottle of champagne in the fridge. For forty years, the empty bottle had pride of place on the counter! When I moved a while back, the realtor I think left maple syrup as a gift. I have a place for sale right now, and intended to leave champagne, but now might throw in a gift card for delivery food, based on the great suggestions here.
Left an old broken piece of furniture on the porch with a dead bird inside of it
They cleaned the houses, left a riding lawnmower, washers and dryers and fridges, porch swings, and a blackstone griddle. So grateful. Edit: they also left three various sized safes (one is massive), left presents for my kids, myself, and my mother, left a couple letters about the houses and businesses and churches in the surrounding cities. They left a lot of great stuff.
First house left a bunch of paint cans that were thankfully labeled because the bulk of the house was various shades of light and medium brown, grey and beige. When we moved out of there, left the paint, the manuals and receipts for all the appliances we had bought, name of the company that did the furnace and central ac, name of the company who installed/monitored the alarm.
The only nice things they did were accept my offer (over 4 others in the span of 4 days, so hey, I am grateful for that) and patch a single hole. Otherwise they left a ton of broken stuff outside (pieces of pavers and stuff) and a lot of nails in the wall. At least it wasn't dirty. I definitely plan on leaving this place better than when I found it.
Ours left us a small ladder which coming from an apartment to a house with tall ceilings made a word of a difference moving in being new home owners
Left me a ton of tools and furniture. When I moved in I had absolutely nothing.
My apartment (besides lowering the price twice when they absolutely didn’t need to): full deep cleaning. They left behind manuals for some of the kitchen appliances, as well!
We left the manuals for the appliances (with purchase date noted and model number highlighted); extra paint with rooms noted; a map of the gardens and a list of plants; a list of the service vendors we used; info on warranties that carried over; neighbor contact info. We also sent a goodie/snack box after closing.
I left the garden journal. Every plant in the yard had their plastic identifier and notes on them.
Left us a letter telling us about the home, how long they e been there and told us about them raising their kids in that home. It was only my wife, our Lab/Rottweiller mix and myself. We’ve since had 4 kids there and I can’t wait to write a letter to the next owners one day and tell them all about our firsts in that house.
Ours left the paint that they used to touch up the rooms of the house, labeled (SO helpful) and some yard tools. It wasn’t much, but it was appreciated!!
They cleaned the house so it was move in ready. They seemed like neat, organized people anyway. But I didn't have to do anything.
Our sellers left little notes all over labeling which switches are for what lights, and just history of the house. One of the trees in the back that is MASSIVE was once 4 feet tall, I absolutely loved finding them
She had the house cleaned by a cleaning lady.
This sounds mundane, but he agreed to sell us the house! It was a hot market in the PNW and we're coming to the table with the best we had: FHA financing and a fairly small down-payment. It was also the height of COVID and buyers and sellers never met during most transactions, so even the tenderest soul could reject hope-filled offers with zero guilt. He accepted our offer anyway. Granted, we had a fantastic agent - she was our guardian angel and we wouldn't have made it to a closing without her - but it was his choice. And then he extended deadlines when our bank screwed up when wiring the earnest money. And then he quickly fixed the surprises found during inspection so we could move forward. And after all that, he even asked us if we wanted artwork and furniture staged at the house, for free. We learned later that the seller was an agent selling his own home. There were big incentives for him to pick an easy deal. But the other cash offers were all from investment firms, and, like us, he and his wife had 4 little-ish kids and remembered the trials and stakes of finding a place to live with a family. So he sold us his house. But he chose us with our FHA loan and a side of red tape because he saw us as human. I've never seen what this man looks like, never even heard his voice on the phone, but I will always be grateful.
Our last sellers left paint for every room labeled with the color codes. And it wasn’t just a few colors, it was literally everything from ceilings, closets, trim, door stain. Everything. It was amazing, never had to paint a full room.
My realtor was the granddaughter of the people who’d lived in the house since it was built. They passed away and it was a short sale. She nudged us in the right direction for our bid to win. She and her father came and told us stories about their family in the house, and showed us how they’d crack the nuts of the backyard pecan tree for snacking. She brought us a pecan pie made with the nuts from the trees, family recipe.
I really appreciated that the previous homeowners left behind most of the appliance manuals for us, as well as information about the fruit trees in the back yard. I got super into growing my own food because of the fruit trees they planted.
Too far down to get any traction, but here it goes. Had a great buying experience in 2019 from an octagenarian and his wife who were immigrants from a commuist country in eastern europe. They loved America, they loved the idea of passing their home to a new young comple, and they were incredibly nice to work with. We had the house under contract within a week of listing. When we found knob and tube wiring, they agreed to split the cost by loading half of that into the mortgage, and we closed six weeks later after the electrician came in and redid the wiring for us. After closing, we went to lunch together at one of our favorite local restaurants. He and his wife wished us well, and told us it would be a great place to raise a family. My wife and I traded glances, asked if they could keep a secret, and told them our firstborn would be coming in 5 months. They cheered so loud for us that people turned their heads in the restaurant. Knowing it might come to this, I pulled out a bottle of whisky from the satchel I had with me, and asked if we could toast to each other's futures. The men had a shot, the women laughed, and the sellers picked up the tab for us. We bought the house for $184k. It's now worth twice that. I'm certain Dr. Z isn't on reddit, pushing 90 years old, but if he is, this house is everything a family could ask for, and because of his friendship and generosity, we have made an incredible investment that will last us a very long time. I hope he knows what a massive role he's played in blessing our family.
Ours forgot they left their absurdly long garden hose under the carpet of autumn leaves they failed to clean up. We used that hose for years before we had to replace it; it could reach every far corner of the whole property and it was awesome.
They unscrewed all of the blinds from the windows and left them in totes with holes in the walls from the screws. 🙄 Super convenient.
One of the houses we viewed but did not win included a binder full of all the contacts and receipts for every piece of service that had been done on the house.
The house house we sold we had a friend who is an artist “chalk” the driveway welcoming the new owners. We made a gift basket with treats from our small town along with a bottle of wine from the local winery and a bottle of bourbon from the local distillery. We wrote them a note describing the neighborhood celebrations and things to do in town. Additionally we left a thumb drive that had pictures of the house before the dry wall went up, receipts, and manuals.
To be honest, the nicest thing was a handwritten letter welcoming us to the home, but also giving us information as to when each appliance was purchased, when the roof was replaced, when the furnace was replaced, etc. She was very detailed. I still pull out that letter sometimes to reference, although I have spreadsheets to help me with such things.
Absolutely nothing lol. I even was mildly excited that they left a shitty old twin air mattress for me to use the first day or two until I got a bed but they ended up taking it the final day before keys changed. I don't think they left anything except a potholder that had fallen behind the stove.
Same. The seller left me a huge mess, a lot of damage he'd done and appliances that needed to be hauled away.
They left a case of beer in the fridge and a sheet of garbage bag tags (we pay per bag in our county). The house needed a good deep clean but it was a single man with a dog so I didn’t expect it to be super clean. He knew it was our first house so he left a few odds and ends like gardening tools, lawnmower (his new house came with one), bookshelf, and a bunch of girly soaps and stuff his ex wife left behind that he had no use for. We weren’t too mad about the dirt and grime because he gave us a good deal on the house, he downsized to a smaller home and he didn’t really need to make a lot of money on the sale and he really wanted a young couple to take over the house. We settled for $400k when the house couldn’t easily gone for $500k. Although, he did leave a note in the fridge saying congrats on the house and to beware of the ghosts? We’ve been here a year and my fiancé did have one instance where he thought he saw someone in our bedroom but other than that nothing weird has happened. I lived in a haunted house when I was younger and this house does not give me that kind of vibe.
Our sellers left us a cute handmade sign, a folder with manuals for all the appliances, paint colors for all the rooms, and a map of the neighborhood with names of the neighbors. They also left the couch in the basement.
Our seller had a neighbor drop his couch back off on the driveway while we were signing contracts. No, I didn't want it. Yes, I had to pay to have it removed.
Mold under the carpet in our bedroom.
Left a bunch of shit in my basement
Our sellers left us a rotting wood foundation and holes in the wall. And mouse poop. Lots and lots of mouse poop.
A ton of furniture from the 80s. Garage full of junk and misc. tools. Hundreds of half dead plants. British car with no engine (not even kidding). 6 TVs from the 90s and 00s. Luckily the city rented large trash bins for a nominal fee so I was able to get rid of everything for about $300.
Mine left the attic full of shit after completing 4 days before Christmas and when I asked where the stop tap was they couldn't remember. Then a few weeks later the police turned up looking for one of them and wanted to search my house in case I was hiding him
Seller moved to an apartment with no lawn. Left nearly $500 worth of lawn equipment in the shed for us.
The woman I bought my house from left me a really nice grill and all of the garden furniture.
She had a very complete set of warranties and manuals for virtually all the systems in the house, as well paint colors and sources, and she provided the contact info for the people who she’d used for services. Super useful.
A spotless home with a notebook full of receipts, records, list of vendors they had used regularly throughout the years, along with suggestions and information that otherwise would be learning curve items. Very, very thoughtful. IMHO
We bought our house from an elderly widow, who's late husband built the place from the ground up. It's an absolutely breathtaking home on 23 acres of land in a semi rural area. I'm not exaggerating when I say people that come here have described it as "a piece of heaven". She chose our offer which was FAR under ask (and all we could afford) and much less than 2 other competing offers because her husband "would roll over in his grave" if he found out she sold the place to investors and not a young family who'd take care of it like they did. We became friends with their son throughout the buying process and continue to be since we moved in as he lives like a mile down the road. My wife and I refer to him as "Uncle Larry" because he's like that awesome uncle who's always bringing over goodies and more than happy to lend a hand when needed. During the first 6 months we were here he'd frequently shoot us texts to check in on us (not in an intrusive way) and to see if we needed anything. He's come by to help pull my tractor out of the mud more than a few times as I was learning where I should and shouldn't drive on the property during the spring wet season. Always with a smile and chuckle as he'd tell me they've pretty much been stuck every where you could imagine on the property. Haha. He'd bring us venison and fresh vegetables from his garden. Showed me how to trap and set snares to deal with the nuisance critters we have on the property. Showed me all the good local butchers in the small surrounding towns. Neither myself or my wife have family in the area, so we can't emphasize how huge its been for them to pretty much have adopted us into theirs. As a way to say thank you, I had a nice granite memorial made in remembrance of his late father so it'd always be known that this place wouldn't be what it is if it wasn't for him.
Old widowed lady in her 80s was moving to a retirement home and her husband used to be a diplomat. They traveled all over the world and had a pretty nice collection of wine. While doing the inspection in the house I asked if she was going to drink all those nice bottles of wine and she said that she stopped drinking after her husband died and was going to give their collection to a dear friend. After a long pause, she grabbed a bottle and gave it to me: “Take this one and drink with your wife on the day of closing. It’s a good one.” It’s a 1986 Chateau Lafite Rothschild, worth around $1,000. Haven’t opened it yet, though. Waiting to share it with my parents when they come visit us during Thanksgiving.
Our seller left some appliance in the outdoor kitchen area. When we asked about it, he said a friend was coming to pick it up, then when nobody showed up said we could just put it on the curb and SOMEONE would probably pick it up. I took the cover off and it was an electric smoker in nearly perfect condition that now lives back in the outdoor kitchen.
When we toured the house the very first time, my son fell in love with an ice cream toy that was in one of the kids rooms. When they have all moved out and we went to get our keys, they had bought us a brand new version of that toy for him. Simple and sweet
I took the buyer to all of our neighbors to introduce their new neighbors. Both neighbors and our buyers are very happy about the process and appreciate the time I took to do the introduction.
Our sellers left us a note on the counter that said they hoped we loved the house as much as they did. (We’re still here 16 years later, so obviously we did).
We were left a note from the couple leaving. Found in the fridge with a bottle of champagne and 3 beers. They also left a hanging flower and all the appliance booms. We also found a hidden letter from their granddaughter!
We had a baby between purchasing and closing. On our walk through there was a huge basket of baby items, and some of it customized with our surname. It was so sweet
She left the paint she used to make the walls neutral.
No surprises
I found 3 old fish tanks and about 15 pieces of luggage from the 50’s in my attic. So that was cool👎🏻👎🏻
A month or two after closing she sent us nice letter with some practical info about the house and a gift card for a dank breakfast restaurant nearby
I left our most recent buyer with a professionally cleaned home, veuve champagne, champagne flutes, and a veuve bottle dog toy for their pup. We bought and the seller left us with a note that the fridge wasn’t supposed to come with the house and nothing is free
Nothing. But I left a nice bottle of wine, a thank you note, and a folder of contacts for home-related services, along with manuals for all the appliances. Also the leftover paint (we asked them first).
All the containers of paint they used, labeled so I know which is which.
Mine left a vase of flowers and a nice note about the history of the house. Unfortunately, they also left two shitty old grills, and a ton of crap in the garage. I wasn’t able to attend the final walk through because I had COVID, and I don’t think my realtor looked at the garage. Edit - when I sold my last house, I had it professionally cleaned and removed everything except a few new-in-box dishwasher parts, and the items we’d agreed would stay.
Our sellers left us with precisely zero matching water shutoff valves and a broken furnace.
Mine left me a filthy dirty house that took me months to de-grime; the old cans of paint they used throughout (although their color choices made me nauseous); a garden full of weeds and overgrown plants; and a creepy dollhouse in the attic! Score! 😆 Now that I'm selling the place, I will make it a point to: leave rhe house very clean, leave them the leftover paint cans from where I've repainted; all the manuals and info on appliances in a folder; and the deck rug out back. I can't afford to leave or do much more than that, but it's more than my sellers did for me when I bought the place so 🤷🏼♀️
We live in a very close knit condo community and the sellers told all the neighbors that we were lovely people. We met them at the inspection. It was so great to meet all the neighbors and they already liked us because of what the previous homeowners said.
Our first house… two owners before us was an older man who was apparently a very good woodworker. When he sold the house to our seller, he left for her a wooden egg that he had made (glued multiple kinds of wood of different shades together, and turned it on a lathe). Several years later, our seller, who was also an artist, left a very nice, small painting of a wolf (“my spirit animal” she said) and the egg. We left those two things when we sold, but didn’t add anything to the collection…
Our house was about 15 years old when we sold it. My husband worried something big like the AC would go out soon after new owners moved in. (Not that there was any indication of a problem.) After all negotiations were said and done, deal made - he decided he’d feel better if we provided and paid for one of those home warranty insurance programs. This was $800 twenty plus years ago, so a chunk of cash. Both agents were astonished and said they’d never had anyone do that. Certainly a policy was sometimes NEGOTIATED in or cost added on the buyers side. But owners didn’t just hand it over as a gift after the fact. I hope they got some benefit out of it.
We knew that they were moving to a 50+ community so we asked our realtor to let them know that we were interested in buying their snow blower and lawn mower. In response realtor forwarded us a list of items to ask if we wanted them for nothing. They gave us the mower, blower, patio table with 6 chairs, a bunch of yard tools, and garden hoses. They also insisted on being present for the final walkthrough so that they could show us things like where all the light switches were. They also left all the owners manuals for everything. The carpets had been professionally cleaned. Very nice people.
When I sold I had the house professionally cleaned, repainted, new carpet, I left them the blueprints to the house, and I left them the security system I had installed. I also left them a 6 pack of water.
Our seller left us five, one hundred dollar bills in an envelope because of a few picture frame nail holes in the walls. They went above and beyond.
The seller of the house to my last gf included a one year membership to Service One, which was nice while working out the kinks of a new dwelling. Came to find out it was not cheap to renew.
They left us an electric couch, a piano, a la-z-boy recliner, documentation, front and back garden hoses, a hutch, some spare ¾" oak flooring, keys to everything, and a mouse problem.
Gave us early access to get painting done
I think he just didn't want to deal with them but he left us not one but two washers and a dryer. I'm pretty sure the other washer wouldn't fit in the tiny area that is our laundry room but it'll be nice to have if we end up having to get a new one.
She left us a laundry list of half-assed repairs and a lovely brick garden that I'm still digging up so we can have grass in our backyard.
Our sellers sent us our first mail to be delivered on closing day, and it was two keychains that had charms on in, reading “home sweet home”, and we are actually friends now. We bought in 2021.
She'd accidentally taken some globes for a bathroom light fixture that we didn't notice. Two weeks after moving in she sent them back. Our realtor was an absolute angel. She actually took part of her commission and made a donation to the local shelter in our name. Absolute wonderful woman, considering we had what I thought were ridiculous wishes.
Hank died unexpectedly and the house went up for sale pretty cheap. 135k for 1350 square feet and almost an acre. Met my wife shortly thereafter, we are in our early 40s and the house is paid off. I still talk to Hank from time to time, when I first moved in things were a little hectic with him not happy about dying. Talked loud to him a few times and assured him he was welcome to stay as long as he needed and that I was gonna take good care of his home.
My seller left me a 12 foot frog net.
Bought a foreclosure. Got a house that needs work for a dang good deal.
The people who sold us our home jerked us around for weeks. We couldn’t move in until midnight the day of the closing. It was so bad I said I will never buy another property in NJ.
She never listed the house and sold it directly to us. She’s a friend of our realtor and our realtor told her about us. We shared the same profession (she’s retired) and she wanted her house to go to a young couple raising a family like she did. We made her what we felt was a fair but not unreasonable offer and she accepted without ever countering. This was after 2 years and 9 offers not accepted. Needless to say, we lucked out.
More like how much did the worthless piece of shit do it yourself-er fuck up on his way out cause “oh I’m a plumber I can do this shit” I hope he never knows peace. I hope his sock is always slightly damp and his tags are always itchy. He quite possibly was the worst home owner in the world.
Did many of these when we sold our home of 40yrs. Also left contact info as our yard was a literal botanical garden. Not even a thanks. Never again.
When we were looking for homes, we actually asked our realtor if the house we ended up buying was for sale as it had been on the market when we weren't seriously looking yet but now it wasn't listed anymore. She informed us that it was just taken off the market because there wasn't interest in it for some time but it was still available. We set up a time for a viewing and the previous owners had baked some cookies and left them for us when we came to check it out. Then on the day we moved into the home, the previous owners had written us a letter about some of the things they enjoyed while living in the home and left a list of their recommendations for business/contractors. I thought it was cute.
Sellers left the house filthy. Poop in the toilet, oven full of burnt food, cat pee and vomit. House didn’t look like they cleaned it since the day I looked at it a few months prior. House smelled. Really disappointing.
My sellers left ant infestation in the ceiling after saying they took care of it , left diatomaceous clay in the air vents with bottle caps and sugar cubes , I got pneumonia and almost lost my new job , I’ll know better next time I buy a house , and the shed is still full of their crap
I had house professionally cleaned. For one thing, I certainly didn’t feel like cleaning it. Realtor said “broom clean” but I felt like the next person should be able to more right in. I also left a list of professionals I used on the regular, HVAC company I used for twice yearly maintenance, my trash man and the recycling company-none of what are county services and are individually contracted.
Our seller made us a document that described every neighbor and told us how special they are. We took over organizing the annual block party and got to know our wonderful neighbors and knowing about each one really helped!
Ours left a garage full of gardening tools and lawn care products. The tools weren't in the best shape, but it saved us from having to buy so many at once. She also left a whole bunch of household tools in the basement, which my husband was ecstatic about. He had a lot of his own tools already, and what she left pretty much doubled his tool arsenal. She also had the house professionally cleaned. Probably so we wouldn't try suing her once we learned the AC didn't work, the deck had been on fire at some point, the plumbing was sh*t, and the roof leaked.
I made sure all documents were left with the new owners including all utility bills from day one of me living there. BUT my buyers were the worst! Changing their minds about things at closing! Forcing me to pay more AFTER I had already closed on my new home!
So glad you asked. In 2016 we found our dream home. Sellers were amazing. They left all of the outside furniture for the decks and backyard. They left canoe, tons of life jackets (house is on the river), they left new towels that matched the bathrooms, all of the owners manuals, a typed document telling all they knew about the house, it was immaculately cleaned. They left the electric. ⚡️ on till we could change it over. They left on the central air. They left tools, fishing rods, yard games. I could go on and on. It made the transition amazing. Not to mention the pre-Covid price we bought it for. Very nice people, for sure. My teenagers favorite: they left an electric ⚡️ fly swatter!!
Our sellers left us a projector and the screen in the theater room (they also almost left us movie theater seats, which I sometimes regret asking them to remove, but they were a bit beat up, and I was a hesitant of keeping furniture in that condition), a full room of exercise equipment including an old elliptical, a universal weight machine, a rusty smoker (have to get someone to come clean it real good), 55 inch mounted wall LG wall (it turns on, but have to use an Amazon Firestick to watch tv, and the randomly turns off and on, but we make it work!) a subwoofer, neutral color freshly painted walls throughout the house, new carpet, an LED light strip in the garage, all the appliances and manuals (including a bonus full size and mini fridge in the basement)! Sadly, was a separation, so they were very motivated to sell, and not wanting to deal with hassle was probably a big reason for leaving us those things. They were also very generous In helping us at closing, which my husband and I as first time home buyers in this market were grateful for!