There are many reasons why a seller may want to protect their privacy when selling their house or property. In the case of a divorce or separation, maintaining one’s privacy is often a key point of contention in the sales process. However, hosting open houses and walk-throughs will inevitably bring dozens of strangers into your home and around your personal items.

During walk-throughs potential buyers will often open closets, drawers and even medicine cabinets. If you want to keep your personal information away from buyers’ busy eyes, there are a few things you should do before setting up your open house.

These 10 tips will help ensure that you can maintain your privacy, while still providing buyers with all of the information they need.

• Clear drawers, medicine cabinets, and cupboards of personal documents, pictures, report cards etc. Anything that can provide names or personal information that you don’t want seen. Also, make sure that your garbage is not lying around.
• Remove personal pictures (wedding/family photos), religious artifacts,  and diplomas from the walls

• Put your mail (opened or sealed) some place safe from prying eyes, i.e., locked desk drawers or briefcases.

• When listing your home, provide only details about the house itself. Forgo adding personal information like why you are selling or how quickly you are hoping to get the property sold.
• Shut down your computer or tablet before opening your house to strangers.

• Don’t leave any personal objects laying around the house during showings, i.e., cell phones or PDA devices
• Inform neighbors and family members of open house days and scheduled walk-throughs so that no one pops by unexpectedly. Strangers can make many assumptions based on the visitors to your home.
• When showing people around your home (if you plan to be present during the tour), only answer questions about the home. When you start engaging on a personal level with buyers, you may inadvertently reveal too much information about yourself, your family and why you are moving.
• Clear out bedrooms of your family members (kids) from anything revealing like yearbooks, pictures of friends etc.
• Hire a Real Estate Agent to sell your property so that you don’t have to be present during showings, answer personal questions, or make small talk with buyers that could have you reveal something about yourself.
• Inform a neighbor that you will be showing the house and ask if he or she would keep an eye and ear open for anything out of the ordinary.
• Turn on the lights and open the curtains. These are not only sound safety procedures, but also great marketing tactics.
• Don’t assume that everyone has left the premises at the end of an open house
• Check all of the rooms and the backyard prior to locking the doors. Be prepared to defend yourself, if necessary.
• Hide all small things, especially coins. Assume that some visitors could be with kids and a kid could take coins, small items and swallow them.
• Repair all your stairs in order to avoid anybody’s falling down.

Finally, before you start to open your house to potential buyers, stage the décor and rooms first. Make sure that everything (including attics, garages and basements) are spotless and decorated to make the most out of each space or highlight certain aspects of a room that you may think are selling points, such as fireplace or large windows etc. Staged homes sell faster because they are more appealing to the eye. Clearing the house of anything personal removes clutter that can take away from the home’s appeal and maintains your privacy at the same time. If you follow the tips above, your privacy will be assured.