If you are thinking of selling your home there are a few things that everyone will tell you. First and foremost you need to declutter your home. The objective is to make your home a blank slate removing as many personal items as you can. It is the home you want the buyer to concentrate on and not your pictures, your diplomas or your other personal items. Home sellers are sometimes reluctant to start packing because they are still living in the home however a buyer needs to imagine themselves and their own furniture in the house as that is part of the emotional bond and the “I love it” you want.
There are a few things often left off lists of what to do to declutter your home and three of those things are removing prescription medicines from view, putting personal papers away and removing valuables.
1. Buyers will want to view your bathrooms as they go through your home. Even though your agent is there and the buyer’s agent may be present no one can follow a buyer into a bathroom. No one can control is a consumer has to use the loo. I learned this lesson the hard way with a buyer revisiting a home several times, excusing themselves to use the bathroom and after several visits hearing from the seller that her once full prescription bottle was half empty. The only way to insure this doesn’t happen is to remove prescription bottles from night stands and medicine cabinets.
2. Personal papers left around are again subject to view. Put all personal papers into a drawer. Leaving a pile of bills with past due amounts on them in view can hurt you in a negotiation because again you can’t control that a buyer passing a desk won’t look. They shouldn’t look but mostly everyone is very curious to know as much as they can.
3. Remove all money and jewelry. I showed a house recently with three expensive watches sitting on a bureau in the master bedroom. Why take a chance? It is just as easy to remove valuables. While as buyers agents we go through the house we are not magicians and can not keep an eye on every little thing. If a buyer comes with parents and kids we can’t watch everyone every minutes. Don’t take a chance just remove all valuables.
