Recently, I was showing houses to a buyer & they were REALLY liking this one home. We noticed a lot of pictures on the wall...wedding pics, various vacation pics, etc. and my buyer says "those people look familiar & I know a couple of guys in their wedding party" (YES, HOMESELLERS, we look at your pics on the walls, books in your bookcase, and your diploma on the wall...tells us a lot about you!!)
A few days later, my client's sister was talking to a friend who was trying to sell their home and the Friend tells her "we have been in our NEW home for several months & We have GOT to sell our old house immediately, and we would leave all the furniture if someone would just buy the house." GUESS WHAT??? SAME HOUSE we were about to make an offer on!!!!
In my professional opinion, having this information in our arsenal, definitely HELPED us in our negotiations. Without it, we were looking at a well-priced home, and would have been told that the sellers had already purchased a home and that was their motivation for selling....we would have assumed that maybe they would "rent" if the house didn't sell since obviously, they didn't need to "sell to buy"
So at the end of the day, my clients got a GREAT house, at a GREAT price & some furniture added in the deal. On a positive note, by "knowing" the sellers, we know that they are great people and that they took really good care of the home.
So the moral of the story is....Put all personal items away...!!
