When you are ready to sell your house, there are numerous guides – and we’ve written several ourselves! – that draw attention to pertinent things like renovation, dressing up the house, procedures and process of the sale to help sellers like you.
However, one thing that is often overlooked but tied so intrinsically to the sale process is how you manage your privacy while you’re in the process of a sale.
The type of personal information that buyers can pick up from just being in the house, surrounded by your paraphernalia can affect their decision and you’ll want to handle this totally.
1. Don’t leave important documents in drawers
While presenting your home, buyers who open drawers that are not marked as out of bounds are not snooping. It is the buyer’s right to inspect drawers and cabinets if those items are part of the purchase.
So leaving important documents, or worse, documents stating the true worth of the property for a random buyer to stumble upon won’t bode well for your sale.
2. Check your mail
Do you owe money and have trouble paying? Is that why you are selling your property?
These are things the buyer does not need to know but they’ll pick up clues if you leave mail from banks or other organizations opened and available for scrutiny.
Don’t leave credit card and utility bills on the fridge or anywhere else for the buyer to get intimately acquainted with your financial situation.
If they do and you are in desperate need of cash, they will take advantage of it.
Alternatively, if you owe money, the buyers may choose not to consider your home on the fear that debt collectors or worse may come to their door step looking for you.
3. Remove your qualifications and wedding photos
People are prejudiced and the sooner you accept this, the faster you’ll get round to making sure you can control this bias.
Hanging qualifications might turn some people off, especially if it’s a degree in something like law. Some people get nervous about buying a home from a lawyer for example.
Even if it is illogical, the threat of a lawyer suing you should things go wrong is fear that takes root.
As for wedding photos, sometimes, it may give off details about you, such as your religion or characteristics and there’s no telling how such information is perceived and interpreted by strangers.
Additionally, wedding photos make it difficult for the buyer to imagine themselves living in the house so removing those helps with controlling bias and encouraging immersion in the buyer.
4. Clear out wardrobes/drawers
There is no justifiable reason to keep your personal belongings in the wardrobe and drawers when you start showing buyers around, especially if you intend to release the furniture with the flat!
You don’t want buyers getting turned off by your choice of clothes or the clutter.
Remember that our definition of what is clean varies so it’s always best to keep everything in a neutral state, meaning, empty and without encouragement to form an opinion based on what they see and like.
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