What information need to gather before selling your real estate

Making the decision to sell a piece of real estate is easy for some, and it is more difficult for others. Some may be selling a home they have lived in for years and are emotionally attached to. Others may be selling a rental property that has only served as an investment for them.

Whether you are emotionally attached to your property or not, selling property can be stressful. You are concerned about staging the home and presenting it in the best way for a new buyer. If you live in the home, you may have to pack up some of your items for storage in order to prepare your home to be listed. It is far more convenient to gather together necessary documents that will be required when you sell your home before you get too far along in the sales process.

Some items will be required for the sales process, and others may simply be preferred or helpful. Some of the required items include:

-the deed to the property
-a previous survey
-a previous title insurance policy
-a property tax statement
-your mortgage information, including account numbers, contact information and outstanding balance of all liens
-details on any property liens that have been filed on the property
-for rental properties, leases on the property
-a Certificate of Occupancy, if you have made structural changes to the property since you purchased it

You may have most of this information filed in the original paperwork from the time you purchased the property. Some information, like the property tax statement and mortgage statement, may be included in your current bills and paperwork. You may be able to obtain any missing documentation by contacting the previous title company, local or county departments or your own mortgage company if you do not have the paperwork in your own files.

In addition to these required items, other information is often helpful for the sales process. In some cases, a potential buyer may request or require you to provide extra information. Some of the other items that may be requested include:

-your current property insurance policy
-warranties or guarantees for home appliances, air conditioning and heating units and more
-recent utility bills, including gas, electricity and water bills
-a recent termite inspection

You should keep in mind that while some of these items are simply preferred by a seller, others may be required by the buyer's mortgage lender, by the title company or another entity as a condition to close. This means that you may not be able to close on the sale of your property if you do not have this documentation in order.

Whether you are selling an apartment that you lease out as an investment or are trying to relocate to a new primary residence, you certainly have a lot of preparations to make. You may be trying to get your property ready to list, and you may be trying to decide which real estate agent to use for this process. There are many decisions and preparations to make, but one of the things you should do right now is gather together the required and preferred paperwork. Having these items on hand and ready to give to the parties requesting them can help you to reduce your stress during this process and save time trying to hunt the paperwork down at the last minute when many of your items are packed away.

Brenda is a web contain writer for Saltwater apartments. In her free time she loves to blog about sport, fashion and home decoration.