6 Things to Check Before You List Your House

Most sellers find out about the problem at the closing table, when it is coming out of their check. We see it weeks earlier, in the title search.

Six things worth checking before you list. Confirm the people selling actually own it. Find out what is attached to the property. Understand that your mortgage statement is not your payoff. Know where your property lines really are. Read any lease on the house. And do not guess on the disclosure statement.

In the video below, North Carolina attorney Tiffany Webber walks through each one, including the divorced couple whose deed was never changed and what that cost at closing.

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1. Make Sure the People Selling Actually Own It

Go pull the deed. Not the tax record, not what you remember signing. The actual recorded deed.

Three versions of this go sideways regularly. Heirs property, where a house came down through a family and there are more owners than anybody realized. A co owner who passed away years ago and never got removed from title. And an ex spouse still on the deed, because the divorce decree said one thing and nobody ever recorded a deed to match it.

That last one catches people. A divorce decree and a deed are two different documents. The decree tells you what you are supposed to do. The deed is what actually moves the property. If nobody recorded the deed, your ex is generally still an owner, which means your ex is signing at closing, and their new spouse too if there is one.

If you are handling a sale for a parent or a relative who has passed, this is the first thing to look at.

2. Find Out What Is Attached to the Property

Whatever is attached comes out of your proceeds first. Not the buyer money. Yours.

Judgments. HOA assessments, including the ones you have been arguing about. A second mortgage or a home equity line you forgot was open because the balance got small. And mechanics liens, which is what a contractor can file when they did work on the house and did not get paid.

We had a case where a couple bought as husband and wife, divorced, and never changed the deed. Once the divorce was final, the protection they had as a married couple was gone, and the ex husband individual judgments attached to the property. All of them had to be paid before the house could sell.

You can find most of this yourself at the register of deeds and the clerk of court. Or you can find it out at closing, out of your own check.

3. Your Mortgage Statement Is Not Your Payoff

Sellers get surprised by this as often as anything on the list.

Your statement shows a balance. Your payoff is that balance plus interest that keeps running through the day you actually close, and sometimes a prepayment penalty depending on the loan type, though not on most residential loans. So the number moves, and it generally moves the wrong direction. The statement says 210,000, the payoff comes back at 212, and the difference comes off your side of the table.

And if this is not your primary residence, or you have not lived there two of the last five years, there may be capital gains on the sale you were not planning around. That is a conversation for your CPA, and a much better one before you are under contract than after.

4. Know Where Your Lines Actually Are

Has there ever been anything with a neighbor? A fence, a shed, a driveway, anything anybody ever grumbled about?

An outdated survey, or no survey at all, is one of the more common ways a deal falls apart late. What surfaces is encroachments, easements nobody recorded, and sometimes acreage that does not match the listing.

Pay attention to the handshake version of this. If you and your neighbor have always treated the fence line as the property line, that is not nothing. It is also not necessarily where the line is.

There is a case from People Court that makes the point. A neighbor fence was six inches over the line. She got a survey, proved it, and made him move his fence. Cost him about $2,500. Then she rebuilt her own fence two inches onto his property, and he made her move hers. That one cost her $5,000.

An example from Tiffany own life. She and her husband built a retaining wall at their house, and they knew it was an encroachment. They had a verbal agreement with the neighbor, but before selling they knew it needed to be legally binding. So they got an encroachment agreement and had it recorded before the house was ever listed, so it was clear between the neighbors who was responsible for what.

5. If Somebody Is Living There, Read the Lease

A lease can generally follow the property. So if there is a tenant in the house, or a family member on a lease, or anybody with something in writing, your buyer is not only buying the house. They are buying whoever has a right to be in it.

Somebody who wanted to move in on the fifteenth is now a landlord until that lease runs out, and that usually changes who is willing to buy and what they will pay. If you are a landlord selling, sort this out first, because it narrows your buyer pool before it does anything else.

6. Do Not Guess on the Disclosure Statement

Here in North Carolina you fill out a Residential Property and Owners Association Disclosure Statement, and the temptation on that form is to soften things. The roof leaked once years ago and has been fine since. The crawl space got wet that one spring. The septic has been okay, mostly.

The trouble with softening is that misrepresenting something you actually knew about can follow you after closing. You sold the house, you spent the money, and you are dealing with it anyway.

If you genuinely do not know, there is an option on that form for exactly that, and using it is not an admission of anything. Guessing is what creates the problem. This is a little bit of a duh once somebody says it out loud, but people talk themselves into guessing all the time because they do not want to spook a buyer.

And if you inherited the house and never lived in it, be careful right here. You may honestly not know the answer to half of those questions, and that is what the option is there for.

Watch the full video for all six. The easement side of this has its own traps, which we covered in four easement red flags. And if the house came through an estate, see how to sell property you inherited in North Carolina.

Common Questions

Is my ex still on the deed after a divorce?

Possibly. A divorce decree directs what should happen, but it does not transfer the property by itself. If no deed was recorded, the ex spouse generally remains an owner and will need to sign at closing.

What comes out of my proceeds when I sell?

Anything attached to the property. The mortgage payoff, judgments, unpaid HOA assessments, home equity lines, and any mechanics liens all get satisfied before you receive your net.

Why is my payoff higher than my mortgage balance?

Because interest accrues through the actual closing date, and the payoff is quoted good through a specific day. Some loans also carry a prepayment penalty, though that is uncommon on residential mortgages.

Does a lease survive the sale of a house in North Carolina?

Generally yes. A tenant with a valid lease usually has the right to stay through the term, which affects who will buy the property and at what price.

What if I do not know the answer on the NC disclosure statement?

The form includes a no representation option for exactly that situation. Using it is not an admission. Guessing, or softening something you actually knew, is what creates liability after closing.

Selling Around Lake Norman?

At Thomas & Webber, we run the title search early, so the judgment, the old home equity line, or the ex spouse still on the deed turns up while there is time to handle it rather than at the closing table.

Our offices in Mooresville, Cornelius, Denver, and Kannapolis serve buyers and sellers throughout the Lake Norman area, including Davidson, Huntersville, Sherrills Ford, Troutman, and Statesville.

Email your contract to close@thomasandwebber.com or call us at (704) 663-1600 to schedule your closing with us.