What do your Coronado homes say about you? Are your secrets safe?
Before your Coronado homes go on the
market and home buyers start to traipse through, savvy sellers of Coronado homes will relocate confidential
information. Even so, you might be astonished to learn what home buyers can
figure out about you.
Private Documents
Is it snooping to open a
drawer?
Not if the drawer is part of a built-in such as a kitchen cabinet or a dining room
china cabinet. Buyers can innocently tug on a drawer to inspect its
construction or depth and find important documents that you might not intend
for anyone to see.
I once opened a drawer
and discovered the seller's net sheet sitting on top of her comparative market
analysis, in plain view.
Don't leave mail where anybody can find it.
Lots of sellers leave piles of opened mail neatly stacked on the kitchen
counter.ew. It clearly indicated
a lower price wasBuyers could find out how much you owe department stores or
other credit cards. They can tell if you're late on your mortgage payments or
if the I.R.S. is after you. Heaven forbid should you file bankruptcy or be sued
and leave those documents on the table, but sellers do it. They must believe
that buyers will not read someone else's personal mail, even when that mail is
taped to the refrigerator door, begging to be read.
I've also shown vacant
homes where the mail was tossed all over the floor in the entryway. Neither the
seller nor his listing agent bothered to stop by and pick up the mail. It
wasn't hard to figure out that much of the mail contained collection notices.
If a buyer was armed with that information, guess what price the buyer would be
thinking about. It wouldn't be list price.
Remove Diplomas and
Wedding Photos from Walls
Notwithstanding that all personal items should be removed, sometimes sellers
overlook the obvious and leave diplomas on the wall. People form biases and can
carry a bias too far. For example, the seller might be a lawyer, and there are
buyers who might not feel comfortable buying a home from a lawyer. For whatever
reason. Diplomas also give away a seller's age or a close estimate. If a buyer
sees a recent medical diploma, for example, the buyer might assume the seller
is saddled with student loans and needs to sell to pay them off.
Wedding photos might
give away the seller's religion, as do certain religious artifacts left in the
home. Buyers can be prejudiced. Don't give buyers a way to form any opinion
about you at all. Don't let buyers form ideas about you from the type of music
you like or the literature you read.
Contents of Closets
Often sellers who are separating or getting divorced feel a lot of pressure to
sell quickly, especially if the partner who remains in the home cannot afford
to continue to maintain it. But that is not information most sellers want to
share with buyers. Yet they do. They may as well toss their wallet out the car
window doing 80 on the freeway.
They do this by hanging
either all men's or all women's clothing in the closet. Was it a heterosexual
or bisexual involvement? Who cares? It's nobody's business, really, if a seller
is dissolving a relationship. But once a buyer finds out a seller desperately
needs to sell, the buyer won't make an offer anywhere near list price. So don't
leave any telltale clues around that could give away your motivation to sell.
Before you put your home
in the market, please, prep it; empty out drawers, stage closets and pack up
anything remotely personal. If your house speaks to a buyer about you, it's
probably saying the wrong thing.
expected, so you can guess what my buyer
offered.
Related Posts
How To Protect Your Coronado Real Estate Investment: EarthquakesHow To Sell Your House Tips and Strategies: Coronado Golf Course homes http://www.coronadorealestatehomes.com/001F7B