The housing market is beginning to turn and more and more buyers are in the hunt for a new home….Maybe yours!!!!
Before you place your home on the market consider this thought…
Place an ad in the local paper, craigslist and the internet inviting complete strangers to come by your home and look inside your kitchen, your basement, your office, and your bedroom. Remember in the ad to tell them how nice the house is (because you want to sell) and you want them to see it from 2-4 on Sunday afternoon.
Then, to make it more interesting, have another stranger (or someone you only have a brief relationship with) show them around the house. Meanwhile you go out, run some errands or have lunch.
Keep your valuables in that unlocked safe in the closet or in the top dresser drawer and leave everything pretty much where you normally would and when you get home maybe it will still be there. Sound like a plan? [It is one that thousands of people execute hundreds and thousands of times a year.}
Open houses are an interesting process that is a great way to bring attention to the sale of a home. If the homeowner is smart, they will hire a professional real estate agent to facilitate the process. However, the homeowner should not think of the real estate professional as the protector of their belongings.
No offense to my fellow Realtors…they are not in the business of security, they are in the business of selling your home. In fact homeowners in no way should consider their agents as security guards, yes I know they do have a responsibility to at least deter, but their job is make the potential homebuyer feel as comfortable as possible and that may mean leaving them alone in your house.
Here are a couple of tips:
- During open houses, if possible, have two agents. There is always strength in numbers.
- Put away credit cards statements, receipts, bank statements…Identity Theft can happen to anyone.
- Put signage out saying “Property Under Video Surveillance” or “Home Security”.
- Double check the security system, make sure all the sensors are working properly.
- Store your valuables and medications in a secure offsite facility.