Preparing for resale, years ahead

What your home sells for is largely decided years before you list it, by decisions that did not feel like resale decisions at the time.

The documentation matters more than owners expect. Keep the title for every section somewhere safe and know where it is. Get every lien formally discharged when you pay it off, rather than assuming payment did it, an undischarged lien from a decade ago is a classic reason a sale stalls. Keep the HUD label numbers and data-plate details recorded, because a buyer's lender will want them and reconstructing them is slow.

The maintenance record is an asset. A dated log with receipts, roof coated in a given year, HVAC replaced, anchoring inspected, home re-levelled, lets a buyer trust the home in a way that a clean appearance alone does not, and it answers exactly the questions their inspector will raise.

Keep the home in a condition that will pass a lender's and an insurer's scrutiny, not just a viewing. Roof condition, anchoring compliance, and a dry crawl space are what determine whether your buyer can obtain financing, and your buyer pool is only as large as the set of people who can get a loan on your specific home.

If your home is on land you own and has never been converted to real property, it is worth investigating whether conversion is feasible well before you sell. A home eligible for mortgage financing reaches a substantially larger buyer pool than one that can only be bought with a chattel loan or cash.

When you are ready, the Seller's Guide covers the sale itself in sixteen chapters, starting, deliberately, with the paperwork.