Sellers - do you leave a gift/card for new owners?

[Anonymous]

I've been a buyer twice, and am a first time seller. When I bought my house, the former owners left a sweet card and bottle of wine in the fridge.

Now that I'm a seller for the first time, I was wondering about doing something similar. Have you ever left something behind for a new owner? Nice chocolates? Card? Or nothing?

[Anonymous]

We left a bottle of champagne in the fridge with a note.

[Anonymous]

We left them a well-maintained house with no surprises. Less could be said for the people we previously brought from.

[Anonymous]

We didn't get anything, but the sellers were divorcing.

If we sell we will either leave a bottle of champagne or a gift card to a local pizza place/ coffee house.

I agree with the commenter about leaving them a well-maintained house. I would rather have no surprises or issues with the house (unless you know about it before closing) than get some small gift.

[Anonymous]

I left them detailed instructions on all the quirks of the systems/features, all the routine maintenance they’d need to think about, a Rolodex of people who know every inch of the house, a list of materials including grouts and cabinet pulls and how to get replacements for nearly all of the finishes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We left them a well-maintained house with no surprises. Less could be said for the people we previously brought from.

This was us, plus manuals for W/D, dishwasher, etc.

[Anonymous]

We moved across the country and left a ton of wine we couldn’t figure out what to do with. Poor planning on our end instead of a thoughtful gesture, but they were thrilled.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We left them a well-maintained house with no surprises. Less could be said for the people we previously brought from.

This was us, plus manuals for W/D, dishwasher, etc.

No to the gift card and champagne and yes to user manuals and house info.

[Anonymous]

Have bought 3 and sold 2 places. Each time realtor gave us a bottle of wine (different realtor conpanies), sellers, nothing

[Anonymous]

First sellers, nothing (it was a flip but our realtor gave us a bottle of Moët). Second sellers gave us incredible house instructions/timeline, manuals, paint and leftover flooring (which has actually turned out annoying but very nice intentions I’m sure), a bottle of wine, and a gift card to a nearby toy store for our kids. I found it all incredibly thoughtful.

We left a bottle of wine, manuals, and house instructions. I did it on Google docs, which actually put us in email contact with the buyers and we’ve emailed about random things over the years (solar panel questions, packages).

[Anonymous]

We left a bottle of prosecco, a note and a binder with the manuals for the appliances, plus we had our cleaners come so it was spotless. But the house we bought was so dirty upon arrival I cried - had to get someone in for an emergency deep cleaning it was so bad. And they left food in the kitchen and a bunch of random crap throughout. Plus they had shut off the gas!

[Anonymous]

Our seller left us a sheet with list of favorite restaurants, and name/number for their gardener, cleaning lady, etc. I thought that was thoughtful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We left a bottle of prosecco, a note and a binder with the manuals for the appliances, plus we had our cleaners come so it was spotless. But the house we bought was so dirty upon arrival I cried - had to get someone in for an emergency deep cleaning it was so bad. And they left food in the kitchen and a bunch of random crap throughout. Plus they had shut off the gas!

Wasn’t the gas shut off because you did not set up your utilities?

[Anonymous]

Years ago we had moved across country and I was doing the final walk through before the close. The homeowner and her husband were realtors. What they planned to leave us was a garage full of junk so I called my husband because I was too worn out to deal with them. He arrived and went into the garage and the owner said the stuff was there when they bought the house. We knew they were moving locally so my husband said if they didn’t remove it he would pay to have it dumped on their front lawn the next day. They had it moved.

[Anonymous]

We left a note and a bottle of wine. The person we bought our house from left a stain on the carpet that had been covered by furniture and holes in the wall from where she took the curtain rods she wasn't supposed to take among other things. Cheap b---ch.