Real Estate Blog - Open House Voyeurism

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Open House Voyeurism

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I just read an interesting article about attending open houses as a hobby or a past time. This Open House Voyeurism, leads the author to guess about the home's occupants and their reason for selling based on the personal effects he notices when he tours the house (and peeks into their medicine cabinets).

It's an article worth reading on several different levels. Though fairly light-hearted, his observations underscore the importance for homeowners and their stagers to remove personal items as much as possible from a home. We know that the emphasis should be on the property and how it may be used, not the furnishings. This article puts it into another perspective, one that may click better with some resistant homeowners. Reading that someone may be looking through their medicine cabinet may be enough incentive to ensure that it is cleared out.

The image of a stripped hospital bed and adaptive equipment in the bathroom may affect different buyers in different ways. As stagers, we don't want to distract the buyers and cause them to puzzle about the occupants. We want them to to concentrate on the home.

The article is, John Moore on the Guiltless Pleasure of Open House Voyeurism.

Posted by Pam Faulkner-Faulkner House Redesign Stager-Northern VA-Fairfax & Loudoun Co on 04/25/2008 05:27 PM

Comments (22)

open houses, homeowners, staging, reasons for selling, depersonalization, property, staging articles

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22 Comments on Open House Voyeurism

APR

2008

This is very interesting. It's is strange how the buying culture has changed over the years. There used to be a time when personal integrity kept a person's nose out of a strangers medicine cabinet, but now, boundaries sure have become blurred. People do the craziest things. Thanks for posting this - it gives me fodder for educating clients on staging.

Gabriele, You're welcome. I thought this view of open houses was so different that I had to share. If you attend open houses fairly regularly, as I do, you hear and see how people react to a home. More than once I have wanted to say to someone, "why are you looking in there?" when they open the medicine cabinet. It's not like they are trying to see how much it will store!

Good point -- great reason to further emphasize with sellers the importance of removing personal items for their safety and privacy

Tori, it's shocking how brazen people are but I suppose that they have an attitude similar to the one described in the article-that they are inviting strangers into their home to inspect it, so they intend to inspect every inch of it. Is nothing out of bounds to these people?

APR

2008

Pam,

This article is just a reminder to everyone, that yes, people are looking at your personal items during open houses and this is exactly why it is so important to de-personalize and stage the home prior to putting it on the market. You don't want potential buyers getting distracted with objects around the house but rather viewing the house for its space and its function.

Pam - Interesting observation. We recently staged a vacant home where we probably had five or six neighbors want to wander through before we were even set up. I'm not sure what they thought they were going to see but they sure were nosy.

Well said, Michelle. The security issue is another thing. We need to be more careful to protect the clients from unwarranted intrusion into their lives. People seem more bold about "peeping". With identity theft on the rise using basice pieces of information we need to remind the sellers to guard private papers and other identifying material. Prescription medicines need to be locked up and hidden. I had one client forget that he had written some notes when talking to their mortgage company and left the paper out on his desk one morning. Because he remembered what I had told him he turned around and went back to get it. It had enough info on it to have been dangerous in the wrong hands. Loose credit cards and bills are easy to "forget".

Lynn, I think neighbors are curious about improvements that may have been made to the house and want to measure their's against a "comparable". It's natural to be curious but I think a little nervy to want to come in while you are setting up, unless the homeowner has given them a heads up and wants them to keep an eye on you and what you do. Some people are like that, empty home or not.

It may be that they want to see the before so that they can compare it with the after. I've had that happen when I've done redesigns. Neighbors and friends want to see the process. They don't get that it isn't a TV show and that their presence makes the job more difficult. Sometimes the homeowner has said that a makeover is taking place and invited them to come over-without telling me. They want to meet the person who is going to do the work or see the work in progress. I try to be gracious in these situations because I know that they are just interested in what we do.

I've managed to get a few new jobs this way.

Great post, Pam...I'm going to play devils advocate and say I think everything that stays with the house is fair game, including medicine cabinets. OK, dresser drawers and nightstands would cross the privacy line but not the medicine cabinet or the bathroom cabinets or kitchen cabinets or closets. If sellers have ANYTHING they want to maintain privately it need be locked up in a safe place or at least out of sight.

Wow. This takes "people watching" to a whole new level! But seriously, how could you NOT speculate on an empty house with nothing but a stripped hospital bed?

Thanks, Abby, you're right. Buyers have the right to test drawers to see if they work and to see the quality of cabinets and built-in features. That all speaks to the quality of the home and how it was built. Builder's grade cabinets can vary, refacing may make the outside of the cabinets look great but the inside may have holes from hooks or cabinet add-ons that are long gone. Broken or non existant glides may cause drawers to stick or fall back into the cabinet. I actually saw this in a walk-thru when a good friend was buying a home. But furnishings should be off limits. What gets into people?

Andrea, I know, isn't that sad? You would think that someone would have realized that the hospital bed and adaptive equipment might create a somewhat depressing scene and they would have removed it. Apparently the occupant of the bed wasn't coming back because the house was being sold. That would lead to speculation about whether the person was still alive or had passed away.

MAY

2008

Hi Pam, Interesting post and article. Selling a home has certainly had its run of a variety of ways to sell a home today compared to what it was like 20, 30 or 40 years ago. Part of it could be the competition and the better staged it is, the better you do not know who really lives there.

You are amazing in findling artilces on so many subjects. I think I am going to give you the prize for being the Best Resource person I have known! You are amazing. Thanks for sharing, too.

MAY

2008

Irene, thanks so much for the compliments. High praise from someone who has come up with great analogies like the "deep tissue massage for your business". Love that! It's inspiring to read all of the info on AR-so many ideas to bounce off one another. This was such a different view that I had to share it. Glad you enjoyed it.

JUN

2008

I little update on this issue. In another post I talked about Staging the Refrigerator because people will look inside it. I've noticed that people are looking under beds, behind decorative screens and under skirted tables, too. I finally asked in what I thought was a humorous way, if there were any monsters under the bed and all I got was a frown. What are these people looking for or hoping to find? Are they looking for hidden valuables or stashed dirty laundry? Clutter? Please someone explain this to me. I find it funny but bizarre. Has anyone else seen this?

JUN

2008

Hey Pam, what a great thought provoking post - and the under the bed stuff - ok that is totally weird. Unless there is another element and people have a treasure hunt going on as part of their voyeurism of house visiting? Theres none so strange as folks - isnt that a saying? its probably true. Thanks for putting us on the lookout for strange behaviour while visiting open houses :)

Jennifer, maybe I should start a contest about the weirdest behavior noticed during an open house? I'll bet there are some strange stories out there that Realtors and stagers could tell.

Pam -

I always address this very thing during my consultations. I've heard horror stories about bills and medication being stolen, people calling the homeowners directly after an open house to try to cut out the agents (they read their name from a letter that had been left out and looked them up in the phone book) and so on. I stress that no one needs to know who they are or anything else about them until the closing.

People are strange and unpredicatble, aren't they?

Kimberly, strange, unpredictable and always interesting, that's for sure. I try not to frighten homeowners with my suggestions and make them matter of fact but it is important these days to be careful with any personal information. Well worded Kimberly, thanks.

JUN

2008

Pam, I think thats a fabulous idea. Top staging horror honor- you could hand out a virtual trophy.

There is a golden story in here. I think you should do it. Keep me posted.

Hmm, Jennifer, that is an idea. I'll have to mull over the wording of the rules, judging, and of course, the virtual trophy has to be something special too. Any thoughts on this?

JUN

2008

Oh Pam, you know I have a myriad mile of thoughts on this. Just have to wrap my brain around it.

Announcing great new competition open to realtors and stagers. Lets see you would need either a fabulous and shocking descriptive graphic paragragh -so what would that be call Horror graphic ? or a picture a pictoMARE graph- the room of HORRORS 0r the STAGING incident FROM HELL or Stagers FRIGHT !!! Realtors NIGHTMARE. or the House of Horrors / the sellers from Horrorville / the bloody buyers

A panel of judges - couple of top carrots from the staging and realtor world on A RAIN & then the piece d'resistance (cos all who see it want to resist it - but cant ) the HORROR of it all -

the virtual winning trophy would be a trophy with a hologram of someone screaming ? like something from Harry Potter. or some of those virtual jellybeans - what were they called?bertie botts? except these would be Realtor beans or HOUSE sold beans or famous realtor staging beans? maybe virtual gold beans to the winner or noxious nauseating flavor. or green bile. - I think I have given you something to chew on - love to hear what you think......... :)

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