Selling your home may be difficult, considering that you must open your doors to a near-constant stream of potential buyers. Your privacy and security may become an issue when showing your home to buyers, so it is important to consider all your options before you welcome your first buyer into your home.
For many individuals, it is very important for them to protect their privacy, while others are simply concerned that buyers will make assumptions about them and judge them instead of simply judging their home. However, the importance of protecting your privacy is all the same.
How to protect your privacy while selling your home:
- Expect buyers to open drawers and peek in cabinets. Therefore, remove all personal effects that may embarrass you during open houses and showings. Now may be a good time to clear out and organize your closet and drawers anyway, so take charge and get things organized and prepared for showings.
- Hide your mail and financial information. Don’t leave mail sitting out – whether opened or unopened – for all to see; and that goes for financial information, such as check books and banks statements. If you have a lock on your file cabinet or desk drawer, use it. Do not give anyone an excuse to peek into your personal finances.
- Ask your realtor to accompany your visitors. Some real estate agents allow buyers to walk through the property on their own, while others will accompany them. If you feel wary of allowing strangers to tour your home, unaccompanied, let your agent know beforehand.
- Remove personal effects from your walls. From diplomas and religious artifacts to wedding certificates and personal photos, don’t provide buyers with any personal information about yourself or your family. De-personalizing is also an important move to make when staging your home for sale anyway, so you can actually accomplish two things by removing the personal effects from your home.
- Don’t leave your computer up and running during showings. Gaining personal information from your computer takes only moments for a professional hacker or thief, so be proactive and shut your computer down before your guests arrive.
Tags: fsbo, Home Sellers