Dolls out when selling the house?

I've not sold a house before, but when I put my notice of intent to leave my old apartment they were Very aggressive about showing it and never bothered to give me appropriate warning. They got really rude when I told them they couldn't show it with only two hours of notice.

The thought of a bunch of strangers trouping through my rooms when I wasn't even there stressed me out way too much and I had to pack up my dolls and put them out of sight.

Maybe it would have been different if I could have been around to keep an eye on things, but part of why I was moving was because they were unreliable landlords, and after adding rude and pushy onto that list I really didn't trust them at all.

I hated having to put my dolls away but it was better than the constant anxiety over their safety.

 

I’d put them away, then again I’d probably put as much away as possible for photos at least. When my parents sold my grandparents house, the realtor had them repaint over stencils my grandfather had done to make the rooms as neutral as possible. The last thing you want is to show up on terriblerealestateagentphotos.com


Be warned there are some NSFW(sort of) on that site, but there’s some pretty darn hilarious ones too.

 

Hmmm, If it is not a cluttered looking scene, I would leave them out. A savvy potential buyer should be able to look beyond the owners personal items and imagine themselves, and their own personal things, in the space. If you are worried about what they will think of your hobby, and judge you and/or your home because of it, they probably don’t deserve your amazing home

 

Absolutely nope. *drags out dayjob real estate hat and puts it on*

Firstly, a lot of staging a home for sale is to remove anything non-generic. You have to let people imagine themselves living there which means tone down the decor and put away most of the hobby supplies unless it's a very common hobby like video games. (There's lots more to it, you can find cool stuff on the internet about successful staging)

Secondly, a lot of total strangers are going to be looking at your house, and they will be aware that soon the valuables they are looking at will be in convenient boxes and all they have to do is show up when you're not there to cart off a lot of it. Moving time is a big time for home break ins and theft because you have a place open for casing that they can then send buddies to to just pick up the nicely boxed goods. NO heirloom valuables or collectibles should be on display for total strangers to evaluate for resale value.

and thirdly, people bring kids with them sometimes. Or they themselves just have no manners, and when they see something weird they HAVE to TOUCH IT. I don't want strangers touching my stuff. Especially not my dolls.

 

Yup, agreeing with everyone else. I would drop a sheet over the bookcase if it's short notice or you really don't want to pack the dolls away, I would not leave them visible both for personal reasons and security reasons.

Also make sure you securely pack away any small loose valuable objects as sadly some people do pocket stuff during viewings. @Rosslyn advice is spot on, you do get cases where someone is viewing with a mind to see if there's anything worth doing a break in for

 

I would not leave the dolls out. The diorama is probably fine but people tend to think that dolls are strange . And if they actually know what they are you don't want strangers knowing that you have something so expensive it might be worth stealing.

 

I packed all of my dolls up when our house went on sale. There are enough people who find any dolls creepy and you don't want to put off potential buyers.
The main aim was to sell a lifestyle, so people could imagine themselves in the space.

 

Wow, guess I am not as jaded about other humans as most seem to be. I continue to believe, most folks are looking to buy a house, not steal your “stuff”.

 

The problem is, most real estate photos are posted publicly on sites like realtor.com etc. so it’s pretty easy for anybody to look through them. I don’t know how many thieves actually go to viewings, but looking through pics online means nobody sees their faces and they can check out entrances/exits as well as what you have on your shelves.

It’s why it’s recommended to not mention you are gone on vacation on social media, leaving your house alone, until you’re back and in control of your space again. Best not to advertise that there’s a house that has noone in it for several days.

 

Maybe I misunderstood. I thought the question was more about an individual walking through the house. If it is about images of your home online, then, no I would not leave anything personal out.

 

Maybe I’m a cynic, but I wouldn’t put it past people to pick up little trinkets as they walk through. My grandmother had jewelry stolen by people she hired to paint her windows. No way would I trust any random stranger.

 

Good grief ! Where I live a realtor is with the potential buyer CONSTANTLY as they walk through a house that is still occupied by the owner, so no chance of pocketing items as they pass through. Maybe this is more about bad realtors and less about potential buyers !
PS I do not trust “random strangers” either.

 

I think they do. I would not say “staring” either.

 

"Oh, excuse me, I just need to run to the bathroom/grab something from the car/go back and look at this other room/other excuse to step out of sight, honey, you can get more information from the realtor, right?"

It really takes very little to separate or misdirect even a realtor who stays with the people they're showing the house to, and the times when I've gone to open houses, the realtor let us separate to return to parts of the house we'd seen previously to discuss them, get a better look, and so on.

I'm not saying humanity is inherently bad, but it's not a good idea to be too trusting, especially when it comes to high value items.

 

I would pack it all up. Even non-dolls. The more people interested in the house, the better. You might even get a bidding war. Personally, when I was buying a house, I did not like the ones that looked like people were still living there. It made me feel like an intruder.

 

Very true and good point !

I agree !!

 

Yeah. Just because a house is neat, it sometimes still looks weird to outsiders. I mean this is a classic of sheer WTF, yet it is clean and organized. But dear god it’s hilariously overdone. I’m sure the previous opwners were quite happy with it, but people looking to buy were more likely to stare in awe at the chaos.

Unfortunately the listing has taken down a bunch of the photos. Every room was like this.