When you buy a home, you inherit its entire undocumented history. The previous owner knows things about that house you will never know: which contractor replaced the water heater, what paint color is on the dining room walls, whether the crack in the basement floor has been there for 20 years or appeared last spring. Some of this knowledge transfers during the transaction. Most of it doesn’t.

The first 90 days after closing are your best window to capture what you can. The inspection is fresh, the sellers may still respond to questions, and you haven’t yet unpacked enough boxes to lose track of things. Here’s what to document and how.

Get It from the Seller

Before you close, ask the seller directly for any records they have. Most sellers aren’t withholding information out of malice; they simply don’t think to offer it unless asked. A written request as part of the closing process yields better results than asking verbally.

Specifically ask for:

• Appliance manuals and warranty documents for any appliances staying with the home
• Paint colors used in each room, including the brand, color name, and finish
• Contractor contacts for anyone who’s done significant work on the house
• Service records for the HVAC, water heater, or any equipment with a maintenance history
• Permits for any additions, renovations, or work done with a permit

You won’t get everything, but you’ll often get more than you expected. Even a list of paint colors in a text message is worth having.

Document the Inspection Report

Your home inspector found things. Some were flagged as significant; others were noted as minor but worth monitoring. Most buyers read the report once, address the major items, and never look at it again.

That’s a mistake. The inspection report is a baseline snapshot of the property’s condition on the day you bought it. Create a record of every item, even the minor ones, so you can track which have been addressed and which may be getting worse over time. A crack that was “monitor for changes” in year one and has visibly grown in year three is now a different conversation with a contractor.

Digitize the report and keep it somewhere accessible, not in email search where it will eventually become hard to find.

Photograph Everything Before You Unpack

Before furniture goes in, before boxes are stacked against walls, take comprehensive photos of every space. This means every room, every ceiling, every floor, every corner of the basement, every crawl space access point, the electrical panel, the HVAC equipment, the water heater, the exterior foundation perimeter.

These photos serve multiple purposes. For insurance claims, they establish pre-existing conditions and the state of the property before a loss. For future renovations, they show what’s behind walls and under floors. For contractor conversations, they provide a baseline to compare against. And for your own memory, they document when that scuff on the hardwood was already there when you bought the house.

Timestamp the photos. Your phone does this automatically, but confirm the date setting is correct.

Note the Make, Model, and Age of Every Major System

Walk through the house and record the following for every major system and appliance:

• HVAC: brand, model number, serial number, installation date (often on a sticker on the unit)
• Water heater: brand, capacity, installation date, and the location of the shutoff valve
• Electrical panel: brand, amperage, and whether any breakers are non-standard or have been added
• Roof: the year it was replaced if known, roofing material, and any visible warranty information
• Appliances: brand, model, and approximate age for refrigerator, oven, dishwasher, washer, dryer

This information is useful in three scenarios: when something breaks and you need to order the right part, when you’re planning for a replacement and want to know how old the existing equipment is, and when a contractor needs to know what they’re working with before arriving.

Record Your Paint Colors

This sounds minor until you have a scuff on the hallway wall two years after moving in and realize you have no idea what color it is. Interior paint colors are surprisingly hard to match without the original formula, and the previous owners’ color choices are not knowable without documentation.

Go room by room and note the brand, color name, and finish for every painted surface. If you repaint a room, update the record. Keeping a small sample card or writing the color on a piece of tape inside the closet are both common approaches, but the information needs to exist somewhere you’ll actually find it.

Start a Record from Day One

All of this documentation has the same problem: it needs to live somewhere accessible and organized, and it needs to stay that way over time. Raftermath is designed as a place to store exactly this kind of information from the first day of ownership, so that when you need it, years later, it’s all in one place rather than scattered across email threads, note apps, and the backs of folders in a filing cabinet.

However you choose to organize it, the important thing is starting on day one. The first 90 days of ownership are uniquely good for capturing information that will otherwise be lost forever.