The buyer’s walkthrough, what condition you must leave the home in, and everything that causes an argument on possession day.
By this point the hard work is done. The home sold, the conditions came off, the lawyers have what they need. What is left is a handover — and handovers are where otherwise excellent transactions produce phone calls nobody wanted.
Two things cause almost all of it. The first is the buyer’s walkthrough, which many sellers do not realise is coming even though it is written into the contract. The second is condition: what you leave behind, and what state you leave it in.
Neither is difficult. But they arrive in the same week as the movers, the lawyer’s appointment, the utilities, and whatever is happening with the home you are moving into — which is exactly why they get overlooked.
It is written into your contract. What they check, what you owe, and the standard we ask our sellers to hold.
In most Calgary transactions the buyer’s right to view the property before possession is already written into the purchase contract. It is not something they are asking for as a courtesy and it is not something you are agreeing to out of goodwill. It is a term you accepted when you accepted the offer.
The buyer and their agent walk the home shortly before possession, typically the day before. It is brief. They are not re-inspecting the house and they are not looking for new faults.
That the home is in substantially the condition it was in when they wrote the offer, that everything included in the contract is still there, and that nothing was damaged during your move. That is the whole scope of it.
Because this is the moment a problem gets raised while funds are still moving — which is precisely when it is easiest to resolve, and also when it can hold up your closing. A home left half-emptied, with a wall gouged by a sofa and the fridge gone that was supposed to stay, turns a formality into a negotiation on the worst possible day.
Your obligation is to deliver the property in substantially the condition it was in when the buyer viewed and wrote their offer, allowing for reasonable wear. You are not required to improve it. You are absolutely required not to degrade it.
Whatever the contract lists as included must be there and must be in working order: appliances, window coverings, garage remotes, sheds, and anything else specified. Swapping a good appliance for an older one from the garage is a genuine breach, not a clever move, and buyers notice immediately.
The buyer is not inheriting your storage problem. Paint tins in the crawlspace, the old mattress in the garage, the shelving in the basement, the pile behind the shed. If it is not included in the contract and you do not want it, it needs to go — and disposal is your cost, not theirs.
The common contractual standard is broom clean, meaning swept out and emptied. It is a minimum, not an aspiration, and it is a fairly low bar. Most disputes we see involve homes that did not even reach it.
Broom clean is what the contract requires. It is not what we recommend, and it is not what our sellers do. Think about the morning you took possession of this house, and what you hoped to walk into. Leave it that way for the next family.
Practically: buyers who walk into a genuinely clean home do not go looking for problems. A home that has clearly been cared for right to the last hour sets a tone that makes the final day frictionless. A grubby handover invites scrutiny, and scrutiny on possession day is expensive.
Floors vacuumed and washed. Bathrooms and kitchen properly cleaned, including inside the oven and the fridge if it stays. Cupboards and drawers emptied and wiped. Windows and sills done. Nothing left in the garage, the shed, or the crawlspace. Bins emptied and clean, not full and waiting. Yard tidy, snow cleared.
A move-out clean is a few hundred dollars, and it is the last few hundred dollars of a transaction worth hundreds of thousands. You will be exhausted, you will be out of time, and the cleaner will do it better than you will at ten o’clock at night.
Many of our sellers leave a short note for the new owners — which bin day it is, which switch does what, the name of a good plumber, what they loved about the street. It costs nothing. People remember it for years.
Possession day goes well when the two weeks before it were organised. This is the plan sellers who have done it twice follow the second time.
Confirm the signing appointment with your lawyer and the date your proceeds will be available. Book the movers for the day before possession, not the day of, if you can. Order the final cleaning for after the truck leaves. Start the change-of-address list: bank, insurer, employer, pharmacy, subscriptions, government mail.
Sign the documents. Pack everything except the kitchen basics and one bag per person. Photograph meter readings when you cancel utilities with a forward date. Gather the keys, openers, codes and manuals in one labelled box that stays with you until the handover.
The truck. Then the deep clean, including inside appliances and the garage floor. Walk every room and closet with the lights on; what is left behind is what the buyer finds. Set the thermostat to a sensible temperature and leave the furnace filter new.
Final walk-through on your side, photos of every room in its empty state, and the key box delivered to your REALTOR® or your lawyer as agreed. Then sleep somewhere else.
Chapter one explained the buyer's right to a walkthrough. This is how to make it short, calm and free of surprises.
Usually the day before or the morning of possession, after your belongings are out and the cleaning is done. A walkthrough of a half-packed home helps nobody; agree the time with your REALTOR® so it follows the truck.
That the home is in the condition it was in when they wrote the offer, allowing for reasonable wear; that the included items are still there; that any agreed repairs were done; and that nothing has happened since the inspection: a new leak, a broken appliance, damage from the move.
The repair invoices on the counter, the appliances working and clean, the included items in place, and the home at a reasonable temperature with the lights working. If something was damaged in the move, say so before they find it, with the plan for fixing it.
Small items are usually handled with a quick fix or a modest credit through the lawyers. A larger problem may mean a holdback from your proceeds until it is resolved. Neither stops possession if it is dealt with openly on the day.
Keys, codes, manuals, meters, and how possession day actually runs.
House keys for every lock, including the back door, the garage service door, the shed, and any padlocks. The mailbox key — the single most forgotten item on this list, and a genuine nuisance for the new owners to replace through Canada Post. Every garage door remote, not just the one in your car, plus the exterior keypad code. If you have given a key to a neighbour, a cleaner, or a dog walker, retrieve it or tell the buyer it is out there.
Every appliance manual you still have, furnace and hot water tank documentation, the roof invoice, windows and any other major work, and anything still under warranty — appliances, roof, furnace, hot water tank, new windows, or a builder’s new-home warranty if the home is recent. Many warranties are transferable, and several require the new owner to register or notify the provider within a window, so leaving the paperwork is what makes them usable at all.
Alarm codes and the monitoring company’s details. Smart thermostats, doorbells, cameras and locks must be factory reset and removed from your account entirely — a device still linked to your phone is a real security problem for the people now living there, and an awkward call weeks later.
This is the part that costs nothing and is remembered for years. Write down what someone new genuinely needs to know: where the main water shut-off is, where the electrical panel is and what the breakers actually control, the furnace filter size and when you last changed it, how the irrigation or the humidifier works, which bin day is which and where the bins go, the alarm sequence, and the quirks — the tap that needs a firm turn, the window that sticks, the switch that does nothing obvious.
Add the trades you trust while you are at it: your plumber, your furnace company, the person who does the yard. New owners spend their first month working all of this out, usually at the least convenient moment.
Contact your electricity and natural gas retailers and the City for water, and set your accounts to close on the possession date — not before. Cancelling early leaves the home without heat or power for the buyer’s walkthrough and possession, which in a Calgary winter is a serious problem, not an inconvenience.
On possession day, take a photograph of the gas, electricity and water meters showing the reading, with the date. It takes a minute and it settles any dispute about a final bill instantly. Do this even though the utilities are usually not adjusted on the statement of adjustments.
If you pay your property tax monthly through the City’s Tax Instalment Payment Plan, you must cancel it. It does not transfer with the property and it does not stop itself. Withdrawals continuing after you no longer own the home create a genuine mess to unwind. Your lawyer should confirm this as part of closing, but it is worth checking yourself.
Redirect your mail with Canada Post, cancel or move internet and television, update your address with your insurer, bank, employer, registry and the CRA, and cancel any lawn, snow or cleaning services tied to the address.
Possession in Alberta is commonly noon, though the contract governs. You need to be fully out with the home cleaned before that time — not moving out at eleven. Buyers frequently have a truck booked and movers on the clock, and a seller still loading is a real cost to them and an immediate source of conflict.
You do not hand keys to the buyer directly. They are released once the lawyers confirm funds have flowed, normally through the brokerages. Leave the full set with us as arranged, along with remotes and codes.
If possession runs late it is almost always because funds have not arrived — a lender advancing late, a bank draft delayed. It is frustrating for everyone and it is rarely anyone’s fault in the room. Do not release keys early to be helpful, however sympathetic the situation: until funds have moved, the home is still yours and your lawyer has told you not to.
Your lawyer will send a reporting letter and the final statement of adjustments. Keep them permanently with your sale documents — they establish what you sold, when, and for how much, which matters later for tax questions.
Disputes on possession day are rarely about the house. They are about the curtain rods, the shelf in the garage and the second fridge. The contract decides; here is how to read it.
Anything attached to the home is part of it unless the contract excludes it: light fixtures, built-in shelving, the central vacuum and its attachments, window coverings and their hardware, the garage door opener, mounted TV brackets. If you want the dining room chandelier, it had to be excluded in writing.
Appliances, the hot tub cover, the shed contents and the patio furniture are yours unless the contract listed them as included. Calgary contracts commonly include the kitchen appliances and the washer and dryer; check your own rather than assume.
If the contract says the fridge, that fridge stays, not a replacement. If an included appliance fails between the offer and possession, tell the buyer and agree a repair, a replacement or a credit before the day.
Security system hardware, water softeners and hot water tanks that are rented, smart thermostats and doorbells tied to your accounts, and the mounted TV with its bracket. Resolve each one by text through the REALTORS® before the walkthrough, and put the answer in writing.
Inside the home gets the attention. Outside and in the garage is where the last-minute scramble happens, and where buyers find what was left behind.
Empty, swept, and with nothing hanging that is not attached. Paint cans, chemicals and the half-bag of ice melt are yours to dispose of; the City has drop-off locations and the buyer does not want them. The opener remotes stay with the house.
Mowed or shovelled on the day, debris removed, the hose disconnected and drained in cold weather. The shed empty unless the contract says otherwise. Garden ornaments and planters go with you; built-in beds and the irrigation system stay.
The City's bins belong to the address and stay. Put them out on the usual day if possession falls on it, empty, and tell the buyer the collection schedule in your handover note.
The crawlspace, the attic hatch, the top shelf of the hall closet, the space under the basement stairs and the cold room. Walk them with a flashlight on the final night. Buyers always look.
Selling a condo adds a layer: the corporation has its own rules for moving out, and the buyer needs more than a front-door key.
Most buildings require moving days to be booked, with an elevator pad installed and sometimes a deposit. Book your move-out and tell the buyer to book their move-in; two moves in one elevator on one day is the corporation's problem until it becomes yours.
Every fob, key and remote the corporation issued: suite, building, parkade, bike room, storage locker, mailbox, amenity rooms. Replacements are expensive and slow, and the corporation charges the unit. Count them against the list on your original purchase documents.
Notify the property manager of the sale, the possession date and your forwarding address. Your pre-authorised fee payments stop; the buyer sets up theirs. The estoppel certificate your lawyer ordered confirms there are no arrears on the unit at closing.
Empty the storage locker and the parking stall, including the bike. If the stall or locker is a titled unit, it transfers with the title; if it is assigned by the board, the buyer needs the board's confirmation, and your lawyer will have dealt with it.
The sale is complete when the keys go. A few loose ends on your side remain, and tidying them saves calls from the new owner and letters from the City.
Your lawyer pays out your mortgage, the commission and the adjustments and sends the balance to the account you directed. Ask for the trust accounting and the final statement of adjustments, and keep both with the sale documents for tax purposes.
Confirm each utility closed on the right date at the reading you photographed, and that the final bills come to your new address. Cancel the alarm monitoring, the internet and any lawn or snow service you had on contract, or transfer them if the buyer asked for it.
Your policy on the home ends on possession; confirm the cancellation and the refund of any prepaid premium. Your new home's policy should already be in force.
Forward your mail, and leave the buyer a note with the forwarding address so anything that slips through can reach you. A single page of house notes, the quirks, the trades you used, the day the bins go out, is the kindest thing a seller leaves behind and it costs nothing.
We will confirm your walkthrough timing, coordinate keys and remotes through the brokerages, and make sure nothing on the included-items list becomes a conversation on the morning of possession.
Walkthrough timing, keys and remotes through the brokerages, and a check of the included-items list — so nothing becomes a conversation on the morning itself.
Book a CallThis guide is for general information only and is not legal, financial, insurance, inspection, tax, or condo document review advice.
Buyers and homeowners should seek advice from appropriate professionals — including their lawyer, mortgage professional, home inspector, insurance provider, qualified condo document reviewer, accountant where applicable, and REALTOR® — before making decisions or removing conditions.
Calgary Listings Group — every detail, right to the last hour.
