Small gift for person buying our home?

[Newname211]

The person buying my home is moving here from a different country. Our home isn’t a big/fancy house or anything, it’s very modest.

The buyer gave us a very fair price and has been lovely through the whole process, so we want to get them a small “new home” gift.

Obviously the obvious choices are a plant/flowers or booze, but personally I don’t like those kinds of gifts so try to avoid giving them! I also hate wasting money on something that might not be appreciated.

I was thinking of making a small pack with local info and info about the house (eg where tiles/flooring/doors/door handles came from incase of repairs/replacements being needed and so on) and local contacts like our gardener, window cleaner etc, nice places to eat that are close by (since she’s new to the area) and then making her a small “welcome” hamper with essentials for the first few days (eg hand soap, toilet roll, washing up liquid, tea, coffee, sugar, bread, and leaving a note saying there is milk and butter in the fridge) - along with maybe a few disposable cups and leaving our (good condition) kettle?

If you were buying a house in a different country, would you appreciate this?

Buyers goods are already in this country in storage; buyer is travelling the day before the move.

I don't expect a house to be professionally cleaned/spotless and I'm in England. Normally cleaned but lived in is fine by me!

OP, really love the idea that you're trying to put some thought beyond "bottle of Prosecco" into it. I'm teetotal and find generic alcohol gifts really disappointing. It's hard when buying for a virtual stranger but I like your local hamper idea. When we bought this house, we were left two hampers: one for adults; one for the children (including age appropriate activities for while we were moving in).

I always leave as much info as possible, spare paint and similar and a gift tailored to the buyer.

Not at all naff,a lovely idea. When we moved here, the previous occupaants has died 18 months prior. The son left brand new white fluffy towels and a bathmat.

That isn’t possible here. Well, it potentially is, but it certainly isn’t the norm and we have moved house many times.

We have the van from 9am until 5pm. Keys are swapped at 12pm.

England have a completely different process than Scotland.

It is totally normal that the buyer hires a cleaner after purchase.

We do keep our house clean and tidy in general - probably more so than the average family home. The home report reflects this, as does the price.

We are selling a two bed ex council house for £100k. They really aren’t expecting professional cleaners.

Yes it’s definitely cleaned well. We have deep cleaned the oven (used a leave on cleanser, scrubbed it, removed the glass and cleaned between panes, scraped it with a Stanley blade etc) and similar to the hob. Cleaned inside the washing machine manually and with a cleaner. Cleaned inside all kitchen cabinets, fridge, freezer, baseboards and wiped down all walls and units. Similar standard in bathroom. In living areas, the windows, skirting’s and walls are washed, and the floors will be washed once everything is packed.

It’s probably cleaner than most people have their home.

Sounds perfect op. Good luck with the move 🙂

Where's she moving from? Kettles are a perculiarly British thing so she might not appreciate that! It's a nice thought though.

She is moving from within the UK so will be familiar with a kettle.

The kettle will be going in the bin if we don’t leave it, we aren’t going to any expense. I’ll write on the note why we left it and welcome her to bin it if she doesn’t want it (I’d imagine she will chuck it when she unpacks her own anyway)

I think your idea is great to help them settle in and so thoughtful! I'd really appreciate that especially if coming from abroad

Clean would mean a lot more to me than milk, butter, biscuits or champagne. It will take me max 10 mins to pop to the shops but potentially hours to clean.

I wouldn't thank you for leaving me a candle.

As I’ve said before, it is clean. Not new build/professionally cleaned, but everything has been thoroughly cleaned by us. There may be the odd wall scuff/smudge on glass that we miss, but I don’t expect any complaints. We keep the place pretty clean considering we have kids and pets, have deep cleaned the kitchen (which is now out of bounds - we are eating out!) and will do the bathroom the night before moving, we are going to get showers at a family members house on the morning of the move. Then we will hoover and mop after the removers leave before we go to the lawyers.

Not professionally cleaned but definitely not dirty.

Our sellers left the place spotless, wrote a letter about the practical things and left a JustEat voucher for £50 so we didn't have to cook after a long day of moving. I wish we had become friends, they seemed like the loveliest people.

By spotless I don't think it was professional cleaned but it was spotless compared to the messy places my friends have moved into.

Leave something if you like OP but ultimately I wouldn't waste too much mental energy on it. They might appreciate it and send a thanks, they might not care or even have any intentions to stay overnight when they move in initially, regardless it's unlikely you'll be keeping in contact. They'll likely get the obligatory bottle of wine/card/welcome pack from their estate agent when they get the keys too.

Last time we sold I made sure the house was clean, holes in walls where we'd taken pictures down filled and left a new handwash and toilet roll in each room out of courtesy, and a card. We got nothing at the house we moved into - various things left behind that shouldn't have been, it was pretty dirty and obviously hadn't been cleaned but equally it didn't bother me - nobody is obliged to and it's not a condition of sale, I really wasn't that fussed.

Neighbours sold nearly a year ago now (we are friends and keep in touch) and they went all out - cards, flowers, wine. In the end after an entire sentimental story about buying the house for their unwell daughter it turned out to be a buy to let landlord who binned the lot (except the wine) ripped the fittings out and had it on the market the same week.

Just do what makes you feel good if you want, and not if you don't.

Even if they don’t stay overnight, they will still be there for a while whilst the van is unloaded, and there are no coffee shops in the immediate vicinity (plus they are new to the town)

We likely will keep in somewhat contact with them as we will be neighbours, and we will be keeping in contact with some of the existing neighbours too, so it is very likely we will at least be on “hello” basis.

Estate agents here typically don’t leave a gift - we have never had that in any house we have bought. Fees are paid by seller and not buyer here too.

Im confident the lady bought this house to be her home; she paid us well for it and it would make no sense for her to choose our house over a similar property unless it was to live in it. She could have got a better return on many of the other similar properties that were for sale. Again, we weren’t particularly caring who bought it as long as we got what we wanted - she offered significantly above the home report value.

I did think about just eat vouchers as well!

We got to know the owners of our house when we were buying and they shared all sorts of things about the history with us, which really meant a lot. So I think a little history of the house and the area is lovely.

Some biscuits and tea would be a nice touch. And personally I’d love a houseplant! We got left about 20 of them which was great for me.