Thursday, July 03, 2008
If you are somewhat negligent about keeping yourself protected while selling your home, then it can lead to certain unforeseen and even undesirable developments. If the drawer is built-in such as a kitchen cabinet or a dining room china cabinet, you cannot blame prospective buyers if they innocently open a drawer to inspect its construction or depth and find your important and confidential documents. While most buyers who view your home may not be interested in trying to snoop into your personal belongings, you must, all the same, pack away anything that could reveal personal information about your life.
Several sellers leave heaps of opened mail neatly stacked on the kitchen counter or near the dining area. You are giving the prospective buyers an opportunity to know how much you owe the department stores or other credit cards. They can find out if you are late on your mortgage payments or if the I.R.S. is after you. Never be under the false impression that buyers will not read someone else's personal mail particularly when that mail is invitingly exposed begging to be read. There are instances where in vacant homes you find the mail tossed all over the floor in the entryway or inside the living room. Neither the seller nor his listing agent bothers to pick up and remove the mail. It will not be hard for a buyer to figure out how much of the mail contained collection notices. If a buyer gets to this information, he or she will certainly be not offering you the list price.
Sometimes sellers fail to remove the diplomas hanging on the wall. If the seller happens to be a lawyer, then there are buyers who might feel apprehensive buying a home from a lawyer. If a buyer sees a recent medical diploma, for example, the buyer might not be wrong in assuming the seller is saddled with student loans and needs to sell the house to liquidate them. Wedding photos and certain religious artifacts left in the home might disclose the seller's religion. You may be surprised but many buyers can be prejudiced. Never let buyers form ideas about you from the religion you follow the type of music you like or the literature you read.
Sellers who are planning to separate or getting divorced may be under pressure to sell the house quickly, especially if the partner who remains in the home cannot afford to continue to maintain it. But that certainly is not a piece of information sellers would want to share with prospective buyers. But once a buyer gets even an inkling of doubt that the seller desperately wants to dispose off his home, the buyer won't make an offer anywhere near the list price. So scrupulously avoid giving buyers any obvious clues the reason why you want to sell.
Muting down the Answering Machine is an important step overlooked by most home sellers. You cannot predict when you might receive an unwanted phone call. If you are engaged showing your house to a probable buyer, you certainly do not want him to overhear a message from a collection agency or credit card company. Hence, before any prospective buyer enters your premises, you must mute your answering machine to prevent any hearing of voice. When you are ready to show your home to prospective buyers, try to remove anything incriminating that might drive a buyer away from you or create an unwanted bias. It is as simple as removing your personal mail or emptying the closets of your bedrooms. Please bear in mind that some extra caution can not only protect your privacy but can also help sell your home faster.
posted by Avoid foreclosure, We buy houses, Stop foreclosure
@ 11:30 PM
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