Home sale security steps

Selling your home is not generally an unsafe process, but it’s a good idea to take precautionary steps to protect your belongings and family. The following safety tips can not only boost your home’s security during the sales process, but they can also help add broaden its appeal to potential buyers

1: Pack up your valuables and place them in secure storage
Packing away your collectibles, jewelry, and other items of value places them out of sight from potential thieves and provide you with peace of mind while your home is on the market. Pack valuables up and place them in secure storage as part of the overall de-cluttering process during which homeowners clear their personal items from the home so potential buyers can get a better idea of how their own belongings will work in the space.

Home sale security steps

Pack away personal belongings

While most potential buyers are honest, leaving anything of value in the home when homebuyers are coming and going for walkthroughs, there’s always the risk of someone slipping something into their pocket on impulse, or of professional thieves pretending to be prospective buyers walking through to assess the home’s contents and decide whether it’s worth coming back when no one is around to rob the home.

The most common items reported stolen from homes for sale are:

  • Jewelry
  • Small electronic gadgets including watches, iPods, tablets, and laptops

Other items that tempt thieves include kids’ toys, prescription drugs, kitchen items, art and artifacts. Putting these items into storage or at least tucking them out of sight during home viewings will greatly reduce your chances of losing items of value and items you may be emotionally attached to after it’s too late.

2: Track the people who come to see your home
It should go without saying that home sellers should keep track of everyone who comes into the home as a prospective buyer. Maintain a sign-in sheet that mandates all visitors entering the home register their name, address, and telephone number. If someone is out to steal property they’re not going to volunteer their correct information, which it’s highly recommended to request a driver’s license to confirm visitors’ information. If anything goes missing, you have the contact details of al suspects, which the police will use to probe the matter further.

3: Ask your real estate agent what security precautions they take
If you have enlisted a realtor to help sell your home, he or she will be able to tell you what precautions they take to prevent random people from walking into your home. When your agent registers your home on the multiple listing service (MLS) they should set a condition that other realtors can visit your home with prospective buyers only. Most potential buyers that come through realtors are screened, so only people who have mortgage pre-approval or qualify for a home loan are allowed to tour your home.

4. Proceed with caution when it comes to an open house
An Open House gives realtors and homeowners an opportunity to make a home available for viewing to the public at large in the hopes of capturing the attention of at least one interested buyer. While most people attend open houses because they’re looking to buy, there are others who simply want to get a peek at the homeowner’s lifestyle and belongings, or even to take advantage of any free snacks and drinks being offered. Open houses are another opportunity for professional thieves to pose as potential homebuyers and come to gauge the place for future thefts.

Open houses are actually beneficial to realtors who looking to acquire buyer leads rather than to actually sell the home.

5: Set up security cameras
Strategic placement of security cameras both inside and outside of the home is a good way to keep a watch on your home and belongings when you can’t actually be present all the time. Internet security cameras are cost-effective and are capable of live streaming and recording. Adding security cameras can help increase the home’s value as well.

Installing security cameras does not give a homeowner the right to spy on home visitors. Potential buyers and realtors should be informed that cameras are filming them, and should never be installed in bathrooms that visitors to the home have permission to use. An added bonus of informing people of your security cameras is that when people know they are being filmed, they’re far less likely to risk doing anything illegal.

6: Hide your personal information
Photos of yourself and your family, as well as any identifying items such as calendars, children’s school awards and drawings, fridge notes, magnets—anything that gives away any personal information—should be packed away. These should be packed away as part of the de-cluttering process to being with, but especially when it comes to considering the safety and security of your family. For example, Becky’s dental appointment at 4 pm on Friday. You do not want to announce dates and times your home is likely to be unoccupied to strangers who are viewing the premises. Make your home impersonal—better to be safe than sorry.

While the home selling process is generally safe, it’s important to be aware of steps you can take to control the safety and security of your home and family at a time when people you do not know will be walking through your space. By taking these precautionary steps, you’re in control of the security of your belongings and your family.

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Home sale security steps