The seller-prep checklist that's actually evidence
Most seller-prep checklists are staging advice wearing a clipboard: declutter, paint, plant flowers. Useful, but none of it survives the buyer's inspection. The prep that actually protects your price is evidence work — and it has a 90-day order of operations.
90 days out: assemble the record
The buyer's agent will ask three questions about every major system: how old, what condition, who's maintained it? Ninety days out, your job is making those answerable.
- Pull the manufacture dates. Water heater, HVAC, roof. They're on the nameplates and permits; if you have a home record, they're already in it.
- Gather the paper. Service invoices, warranties, permits — especially permits. An unpermitted water heater or panel swap found by an inspector reads as "what else did they cut corners on?"
- Get the deferred items serviced now. A documented HVAC tune-up dated 80 days before listing is evidence; one dated the week of listing looks like what it is.
60 days out: fix what the inspection will find
Hire your own inspector — or work the list a documented record already surfaces. Repairs you choose cost retail; the same repairs as buyer concessions cost retail plus fear premium, because every flagged item makes the buyer wonder what wasn't flagged. Fix the water heater nearing end-of-life, the GFCI that doesn't trip, the slow bathroom drain. Keep the receipts; they become part of the story.
30 days out: package the proof
This is where a Proven Report does its work: systems, health scores, honest life estimates, and the verified service timeline in one shareable document (see a sample). Listing agents put the link in the MLS remarks; FSBO sellers attach it to the $99 package. Either way the showing conversation changes from "it looks well-kept" to "here's the documentation."
The uncomfortable truth
If the record starts 90 days before listing, it will be thin, and a thin record can only prove 90 days of diligence. The sellers who clear inspection with zero surprises are the ones whose record started years earlier. If selling is even on your horizon, the cheapest prep is starting the record now.