What home records should I keep?

Owning a home generates a surprising amount of paper — and most of it matters at exactly the wrong moment. A burst pipe, a tax audit, an insurance claim, a buyer's inspection: that's when a missing serial number or lost permit costs you real money. Homeowners who keep organized records sell faster, push back on inspection concessions more successfully, and recover from emergencies without losing their minds.

The checklist below is the full set of records every homeowner should store somewhere safe, searchable, and transferable. Print it, work through it room by room, and keep originals (or photos of originals) in one place. Closing documents alone aren't enough — the records that actually matter accumulate after you move in: every appliance you replace, every contractor you hire, every gallon of paint you buy.

A few highlights worth flagging. Capital-improvement receipts stay relevant for as long as you own the home — the IRS lets you add them to your cost basis to reduce capital gains at sale, so the receipt from a 12-year-old kitchen remodel still matters. Permits are the single biggest cause of last-minute closing delays; pulling them out of a folder beats arguing with the county. And a photo or video inventory of your belongings, updated yearly, is the difference between a paid insurance claim and a denied one.

If you want the checklist below stored, searchable, and ready to hand to the next owner when you sell, that's exactly what the vault by BuildTrust AI is built for — forward receipts to your personal inbox, snap photos of appliances, and let AI sort everything into the right category automatically.