I would have loved to have been told who were very nice neighbors and which ones to steer clear of. (I'm talking about extremes on both ends, not personal preferences).

Oh, good thought! As I can't think of anyone to steer clear of, I will include the names and phone numbers of neighbors on both sides of her. That should be a big help.

And I realized after I posted this that in this day and age of internet savvy, pretty much anyone can get on their phone and find out almost instantly where things are around them. Still - I know if it were me moving into a new neighborhood, I would appreciate having the previous owner provide their recommendations.

I think it's a lovely thought and thing to do, Turquoise, esp. in this day and age of lack of "personal touch", so to speak.

Lol...I'm not sure I would put who the problem neighbors are on paper for the next owner to pass around. May come back to haunt you. School info is handy, and number of someone to clear snow (if applicable).

The previous owners of my daughter's home left information about the major plants in the garden. It was quite helpful to my daughter who was new to gardening.

I think it is a thoughtful and kind touch for you to be doing this.

Since we've recently updated and remodeled pretty much everything inside and outside of our home, I'm planning on not only leaving info/warranty paperwork, etc. re the different systems, windows, flooring, etc, but also what we used for final finishes.

For example, what paint color, brand and sheen for all walls and trim, the type of tung oil finish for the hardwood floor, custom stain mix for front door and wood floors, the manufacturer/color for exterior stucco, info re natural stacked stone used for fireplace and exterior hardscape, type of marble and retailer for bathrooms, manufacturer/retailer for light fixtures, etc. Basically, I'll go room by room.

They might not need it at all but it could make it easier if they need to make repairs and/or match existing finishes.

Your lawn service, irrigation service, septic, boiler cleanout, a/c service contacts, etc.

Lovely, kind idea.

Dependable neighborhood babysitter, house sitter, kids to mow lawn, etc. if you've used them. And maybe some takeout menus from the local good restaurants.

I echo all of the above.

What a helpful surprise you are giving her. As a gardener, I would love photos or descriptions of any plants, shrubs and trees in the garden.

With one of the houses we purchased over the years, the owner left me a garden plan. It was a sketch of the beds, and what was planted in them. She also noted what she fertilized and when. She obviously cared about her garden very much, and her notes were appreciated.

How about:

when the local farmers markets are?

parks, bike paths, running routes

interesting bird facts, eg you will get lots of Baltimore Orioles if you put out orange slices.

Am getting ready to run out the door on some errands and don't have time to read all the other suggestions, but one thing that I would appreciate is photos and information about the plantings in your yard, front, back, sides, at different seasons of the year. this way she knows what to expect and can make plans ahead of time, if she feels the need to change anything.

manuals for the appliances! Yes! Good one!

When you give info on the neighbors, include names and ages of children. Then when she encounters "Danny" or "Susie" on the street she will know which family they belong to. It is helpful to include the people across the street as well as on either side. I have lived in my house for 18 years and still refer to the info that was left for me. Very nice idea!

Do you have a neighborhood Facebook page?

A plan of the garden. Wish my previous owner had done that for me.

Very nice thing to do. Our previous owners left a lot of information that has been useful. One thing we did not know was the location of the sewer cleanout for access to the main line. It is also important to know where the main water cutoff is. Helpful to know when security system and smoke detector batteries were last replaced as well as air and water filters.

You have all given me some excellent ideas! I've just finished compiling a list of the neighbors on both sides of her, and noted nice things about all of them. They're all nice people, so that wasn't hard to do! For instance, I think it will be helpful for my buyer to know that the elderly widow who lives on the corner is visited often by her children and speaks limited English, but we have managed to communicate successfully many times by gestures and my very limited Spanish! That woman is sweet as can be too.

We have a neighborhood association with an informational website and there is regular community interaction (no FB page though), and a monthly newsletter is delivered to all houses by volunteers. I really think that if my buyer jumps in to that group feet first, she'll be instantly immersed and will get to know so many people that will make her feel right at home.

I will admit that I don't know which kids belong to which family. The immediate neighbors are older with grown kids, or single. I'll have to try to remember the names of plants too ... I've never been much of a gardener, and what's been planted is all fairly common to the area. But I'll see what I can recall in that regard.

I have some photos that were given to me by the family that lived in the house in the 40s and 50s, and I'm going to make copies for myself and give the pics to the buyer. As a lover of all things vintage, I know she will appreciate having them. And I consider them hers now, since she's carrying on as caretaker of the house. :-)

wow, how nice of you! The only time I've heard of a seller leaving the buyer a note was when my friend moved into his new house and found a note CONFESSING all the problems that the seller failed to disclose! It was against the law for them NOT to disclose and I tried to convince my friend to do something about it, but he was so bummed out he just wanted to start fixing everything. :(

The people who we bought our FL house had an organized binder they left us. In the front were cards for everyone who'd done work on the house as well as the paint swatches w/ labels (e.g. living room color; ceiling color). There is also a little visual hand drawn map they made showing where in the house the air conditioning/furnace filters are that need to be changed.

Then, the binder was divided into sections like (pool / lawn / security ) etc. and there was relevant paperwork, details on past repairs, and notes about other important info in each section. It has been immensely helpful!

Menus and or recommendations for nearby restaurants would be a nice touch as well

I left my home buyers with a list of services such as you mention; any other favorite handymen, painters, etc. Left manuals to everything. I wrote up instructions on taking care of the manmade waterfall, stream and the salt water swimming pool.

I left paint colors and any paint of those colors that was still usable. I changed the filters on the water system, the HVAC air returns.

Since my late husband and I had designed and built our home, I left the blueprints.

An unusual case -- I had extensive gardens, but since I had blogged about it for so many years, they were happy to use that as an online, searchable resource. Of course, my garden changed over the years, so the plants weren't necessarily all the same now. They enjoyed reading how the gardens evolved and my explanation of why I did what I did, chose the plants I did, the successes and failures!

I never talked to the new owners in person. All communication was through our realtors (who made great commissions). Since I was downsizing, I offered a few pieces of furniture for free and they were thrilled since these weren't shabby pieces. They wanted other furniture that I didn't want to give or sell. I offered to sell my John Deere mower, but the husband's parents wanted to give him a new one as a housewarming present. I sold the JD to a friend.

We did that with our last house. It was a brand new house, we were the first owners and were only there for 4 years so it was really easy to leave all the important information. And as a librarian it was second nature to keep a file box with all the manuals, service and repair contacts, paint colors, landscaping information etc, - I even left sales receipts for the larger items we weren't taking - washer, dryer, chandeliers, appliances.

We remembered how excited we were when we bought our first home and the young couple who bought our home were first time homeowners so we also left them a bottle of champagne and 2 wine glasses.

Boy you guys are all really nice. Our previous owners left us nothing. They even took the curtains that were part of the purchase price.

When we still had our dear dog, neighbor across street (who had dogs of her own) gave us a map of all dogs (and owners) for the blocks surrounding our house. Great way to meet the neighbors!

Jen, you are a very thoughtful person. I suggest to mentally go through the house and think of any summer/winter protocol like shut off this /that, drain this/that. Identify switches and valves. We have some switches at the river house that we have not figured out yet. Tag keys. The names and numbers of service people who are reliable. Location of nearest Home Goods?

This is probably totally not what you want, but I'm telling you anyway because it meant so much to us. When we bought our house, I was expecting our first DD. We knew it was our dream home and we would be here a long time. The previous owners had been here 60 years and had a very tight knit and loving family. They left us copies of pictures of family events in the house that had occurred over those 60 years. We love those pics and have added them to our family albums. The kids of the original owner still stop by to say hi. One of the grandkids went to the school I taught at and used to come by and say hi and ask about the house. It has made us feel like our house has a special heart and is looking out for us. We've also used the pics to help us to restore things to how they were originally (100 year old house and windows and things were changed here and there over the years).

I want to interrupt the thread for a second to say how impressed I am to learn that mare_cate is a librarian. That is one tough field of study!

Some great ideas here :-) We always leave labelled paint tins (or a list of colours used if those are empty!) and info on planting etc. Last house (a 200+ year old thatched village house) we had several old photos and other historical info that had been sent to the previous owner by the descendants of the original inhabitants who he had traced over years of research into the house's history. The photos we had hung in the ground floor utility room and we left these plus the other docs for our buyers. Before the sale completed we invited our buyers and their three kids round to talk through stuff like the hot tub chems, the woodburner and general neighbourhood stuff.

Pleased to hear you sold your house, btw Jen!!!

We did this when we recently moved. I provided everything you mentioned and information about our neighborhood events and general information about the neighbors. I also included a detailed list of the plants, their location in the yard and what care I thought they would need shortly after they moved in. I gave them some restaurant suggestions and ideas of fun things to do in the area and around the state.

I wish I knew some things about the house's past, like what is that framed hole in the floor, were there doors on that doorway, when were the closet doors switched out and why, what are those extra doors in the basement for, who made the front door because it needs a new sweep, and why the 7734 did someone simply wallpaper over the old dryer vent hole when the new hole was cut? Oh, and just by chance we called a company to work on our sump pump expellation, and they had done the entire drain plan for our house when it ws about 6 years old. That turned out to be exceptionally helpful!

Howdy! I'm a long-time lurker finally getting the nerve to post something. :-) I don't know how old your home is but one thing that we enjoyed receiving from the previous owners were pictures of the house from its earlier days (it was built in 1935). They also left the blueprints from some remodeling, manuals, and leftover paint. But the pictures were the most fun!

Yes, I'd love to see pics of my house in its early days! We found some pics of my dad's childhood home and back yard, and are thinking of sending a couple copies to the current owners.

Wow! I think this is so nice of you! We have moved several times, across the country and never has the seller done this for us. How thoughtful!

Very nice to leave the information....also a nice suggestion is to make sure a roll of toilet paper, roll of paper towels and some bottled water is left for the new owner.

The only thing I can think of is to make sure your list of restaurants and take-out's includes places that deliver. It will be hectic her first few days in the house. Great ideas from everyone and very thoughtful on your part.

We've only had one PO who did this. Of course our current house we built so this was a long time ago but it was so helpful.

Veterinary suggestions, in case she has pet(s).

congrats!

the type of thing that i find very overwhelming when i move is finding dependable service people... electricians, plumber, handyman, etc!! if you have a list of people to call when in need, that would be very helpful!! a great vet and even hair salon, nursery, bakery, etc is great, esp if person is moving from out of town...

leftover paint and/or paint brands and names is very helpful!

accurately label your circuit box if it isn't already!

If anything is buried on the property, let her know---location of sprinkler valves and heads, septic tanks, propane gas tanks, gas lines, electric fence (animal containment), etc. We have our own house "yellow pages" with the name and phone number of anyone who has ever worked on the house, yard, appliances, etc. Some are rated :-)

Kswl makes a good point about buried utilities. When we installed the pool in our current house we took photos of the excavation and all the pipes because they would get buried. When we put the addition on we took photos of the new cable TV and telephone lines.

Daisychain - what a wonderful story, your home has been well loved.

Off topic here -

Tibbrix - thank you! You just made my day!!

It was my dream job, the only one I ever wanted and so rewarding. I was fortunate and had a variety of positions over the years and was able to work in neighborhood branches, Philadelphia's Central Library, University libraries and when we moved I volunteered in my town's school libraries and public library. I loved it all.

Haven't read all of this yet (but will later), but what I wanted to know was the ID of various plants in the front and back yard and any special care information for them, especially the citrus and fruit trees. I did meet with the previous owner, and he was not a lot of help - he could not identify all of the plants, and he could not provide me with instructions for the sprinkler system or the thermostat. Eventually we figured out the sprinkler system controls (or at least DB did), but I'm still not quite sure how they work. We put in a new thermostat when we put in A/C, and the new one is much easier to use. The previous owner told us that we could download instructions manuals for these items, but such was not the case. We took out a bunch of trees that the previous owner had planted, including an ornamental peach and a couple of plum trees that never made more than a dozen plums and were gangly. We kept the Fuji apple tree but got rid of the grape vine - it was only good for leaves, and we put a stone path where it used to be so that I can put orchid cactus in pots there.

We received a history of the house from someone (the realtor, I think), and it gave names of all the previous owners, going back to 1950, and also listed when additions were made. The house is now almost twice the size it was when it was first built.

What wonderful suggestions! TurquoiseRose, that is so kind of you to do this! No one has ever done this for me. Now I am wishing I had done the same for others who have purchased my former homes!

I have to second (or third!) the recommendation for takeout menus. When we moved into our house, the previous owner left a stack of takeout menus from the area. Since we were new to the area and didn't know what was around, having readily available options for food those first few days when all of our things were in boxes and our internet wasn't set up yet - it was WONDERFUL! Plus we found some great Vietnamese food that I don't think we would have found otherwise:)

They also left us manuals of appliances, some info/cards/receipts for prior work done on the house, and blueprints from when they put an addition on the house some years ago. I use these as reference materials often, and really appreciate that they left them.

I wish they would have left us some photos of what the house looked like when they got it. They were the second owners (and they ended up changing almost everything about the house), and I'd love to know what it looked like before they renovated.

We did this in our last house, and the PO did it for the current house: a binder of the manuals for all the appliances, furnace, garage door, with the purchase date (and sometimes source) noted in the corner of the cover. We left a lot of info related to our remodels, and I wish our sellers had done the same.

Sometimes a "why" is helpful. An acquaintance happened to buy my childhood home and asked the purpose of a chimney; it was nowhere near the furnace or fireplace, and was not where those would ever have been or could ever be. I was able to clear up the mystery: there was an incinerator (before the EPA!) where we tossed burnable waste, so it needed a chimney. Well, of course a later owner took it out but left the chimney.

Our PO warned us that in winter, our neighbors' south-facing driveways would melt before our north-facing ones; he was right. And that the trash pickup came early, but the recycling came after lunch. And that if we waited till September (just a couple of weeks) for a dog park permit it would be 50% off.

You have all given me such excellent advice and inspiration! Putting together this notebook has actually been not a chore but a real joy for me. I've got 15 pages of information and photos so far, with manuals for household items tucked into plastic Velcro'd sleeves in the back of the book. I'm a little bit surprised at how my own organizational skills are coming out with this project, and am really glad that I decided to do this for my buyer.

I'm including a few little vintage illustrations on some of the pages that aren't quite full. This will be part of the front cover, and I think it's just perfect. The buyer has told me how she loves vintage things, is eager to drink tea on rainy days in the upstairs attic conversion, and she has Scotty dogs. Perfect little illustration, isn't it?