There are specific items that Canadians (or foreigners) need to understand to avoid potential tax implications.

Bill has done an admirable job in his posts, so I'll try to add value and keep my posts related to NC specific items.

Also, aside from obvious general condition of the house, what specific items do you look for during in inspection of your house?

Make the confirm they include what you want, and if they don't include it, they need to confirm this as well.If you have specific items you want, include these in the scope sheets.

If a contractor wants to quote w/ materials, we compare the quote against our pricing on the same manifest to see where it lays.Like Michael, we typically source specific items (light fixtures, vanities, fixtures, appliances, etc) ourselves regardless of the approach we are taking.I can also not stress enough standardising paint colours.

There were some very specific items that they wanted above the standard amenities.

Some specific items- owner's title policy - basically a guarantee on the deed you give the buyer- title company fees - a plethora of fees the title company charges for doing their job- recording fees - fees the county charges for recording various documents- pro rated taxes - because taxes are typically due the year after they're incurred (i.e, in the spring of 2013, or maybe the very end of 2012 you will pay taxes for all of 2012), you will have to pay the portion of taxes for the year to date of the sale.

You're going to burn a lot of time if you try to have that conversation with several dozen banks only to get shot down because of some specific item.

We have this on a one page sheet and the buyer signs it.The seller must send an Auth to Release Info to the mtg company so the buyer can verify the house payments are current.The seller must report to the buyer when the mtg payments were made.You can either have the seller e-mail the buyer each month, or use a servicing company or I've had owners create unique logins to their mtg info online and the buyer can check 24/7.There are other small things, such as not withholding a rent credit for a late payment, but that all makes sense.Keep in mind...the law specifically states that ONLY SPECIFIC ITEMS OF THE PROPERTY CODE RELATE TO A LEASE OPTION.Also, the seller must have fee simple title, which is no big deal as that is how we hold title in TX, but you can't (per the law) do a SLO.

Ask those agents what specific items they recommend fixing.Realize that its going to be really hard to come out of this whole.