Closing in a week! What should we...

Hi All,
After almost two 1/2 years and several different houses-we will be closing in a week! We are first time homebuyers. My questions are:
Who should we make sure we call prior to closing?
What are some things we should buy for house prior to closing that we may need right away? Or that we may not think of?
Anything we should ask homeowners about that you wish you had asked them at closing/prior to closing?
Thanks!! Any and all suggestions helpful!

Re: Closing in a week! What should we...

The previous owner left the garbage cans, but that is something you can look into, along with the schedule for pick up.

Do you have to pay for that or is it included in your taxes?

Also utility set up, obviously (gas or oil, electric, cable).

Transferring of mail. I believe you may be able to do it online now.

I also went out and bought a ton of cleaning supplies and heavy duty garbage bags.

Laundry supplies/detergent.

Are you going to be doing your own lawn care/landscaping or hiring someone?

DH does ours so we bought a lawn mower, weed wacker and blower right away.

Also a grill........and propane!

Outdoor furniture too (we got our first big set as a gift; places like Wal-Mart and Home Depot also have plastic chairs and such for pretty cheap (we have the Adirondack style).

These are the big things off the top of my head.

Congrats and enjoy!

Message edited 6/3/2013 5:39:19 AM.

Re: Closing in a week! What should we...

In addition to the PP's advice, we changed the locks to the house.

Re: Closing in a week! What should we...

And don't forget to have toilet paper available!

Re: Closing in a week! What should we...

Call the utility companies and give them your closing date. They will change over everything to your name at that time. Just let them know asap if that date changes for whatever reason.

Locks. We went to home depot right after closing to change all of the locks.

Ask the homeowners if they can keep any appliance manuals that they might have. The previous owners of our house left SO MUCH paperwork for us. This included previous repair reciepts, anything to do with the town, and all the documents that they then received from the people they bought the home for. I have paperwork going back 3-4 owners.

Ask them where the turn off valves are for the gas and water. Sometimes they aren't labeled. The owner was actually there when we did the final walk through which was really helpful.

Oh, if they are comfortable with it, ask them where you can foward any mail they might receive. It's been a year and we're still getting mail for the previous owners. We also found a bunch of keys afterwards and sent it to them. If they aren't comfortable with this then ask if it can be done through the lawyers.
I THINK that's it.

Message edited 6/3/2013 11:28:03 AM.

Re: Closing in a week! What should we...

Posted by chilltocam

And don't forget to have toilet paper available!

Message edited 6/3/2013 11:28:17 AM.

Re: Closing in a week! What should we...

Advil and a bottle of hard liquor . Congratulations on your closing

Closing in a week! What should we...

When you do you final walk through of the house check everything--we found out after closing that many of the windows were painted shut and the doorbell is broken. We never thought to check these things.
If you are planning to hire painters, contractors, etc. you should do it now.
Personally we waited to move in to buy things for the house.

Re: Closing in a week! What should we...

Thanks all! Keep the advice coming-I'm adding tips/things to my to do list as you respond! Thanks!