For the third installment in our “House Vs. Home” series, I want to take on the subject of making  sure that your HOME doesn’t get in the way of your HOUSE!

How you say? With your shrine of family pictures, that’s how!!!

That’s right, your potential buyer just stopped looking at your house when they started looking at the history of your family, and time YOU spent in the home, proudly displayed on the walls in full color print.

Family portraits are GREAT decorations for a home, but do nothing but create a point of distraction for prospective buyers when selling your house!

When your home is on the market, you want potential buyers looking at the rooms and visualizing themselves in the property, calculating how their furnishings will look in the house, and letting the kids pick out which bedroom will be theirs, not losing their focus while sharing in your personal memories!

Another major downfall to family pictures lining the walls are that you have NO IDEA who your prospective buyers may be! Just recently, I was showing a home to buyer, and right as we walked in the front door we were greeted with a proudly displayed wedding photo of the owners! As the husband began looking at the house, his wife zeroed in on the picture with laser focus. “Hey honey…isn’t this xxx…..” and the rest is history!

While the house met EVERY baseline criteria that this couple had been searching for, this HOME was eliminated while still standing in the foyer. “There is NO CHANCE I will live in HER home…” (I’ll leave the rest of the story out, but you get the “picture” right?!?)

So, the bottom line is this, when selling your property, depersonalize as much as humanly possible. Pull down the pictures, patch up the holes, and touch up the paint! Leave your potential buyers in the dark as to who you are, and keep them focused on the task at hand by forcing them to look at your HOUSE, and forget that it is someone else’s HOME.

Make sure you check back for the fourth, and final, installment in my “Why Buyers Will HATE Your Home” series and before you go, leave a comment addressing this quick question. “If a home met ALL of the criteria you had been looking for, would a prior negative personal interaction with the current owners have an impact on your decision to buy a particular property?”

Also, if you found this commentary to be helpful, or know someone who might benefit from a little sales coaching, give this post a share!

~Jason