When it comes to selling your home, security is a paramount concern that often goes undiscussed. Whether your home is still occupied or vacant, ensuring the safety of your property and belongings is crucial. As real estate professionals, it’s our duty to guide sellers through these considerations, particularly those opting for a For Sale By Owner (FSBO) approach.
Firstly, it’s important to understand that once your home is listed, it’s likely to attract attention. Prospective buyers may drive by to get a closer look, and while this is generally harmless, it’s essential to maintain boundaries. Under no circumstances should you allow a stranger off the street to enter your home. Instead, provide them with a flyer or direct them to contact your realtor for a scheduled viewing. This adds an extra layer of security and ensures only serious, vetted buyers gain access to your home.
If your home is vacant, the risk of vandalism or trespassing increases. The last thing you want is a realtor showing your home to potential buyers, only to discover signs of unauthorized activity. To deter such incidents, keep some lights on and ask your real estate agent or neighbors to periodically check on the property. This creates an illusion of occupancy and discourages unwanted visitors.
When it comes to security systems, it’s advisable not to share your master code with your real estate agent or listing companies. Instead, consult your system’s owner manual or call your monitoring company to add a new, temporary code. This code can be tracked and changed regularly, providing an additional layer of security.
One of the major advantages of working with a real estate agent, as opposed to a FSBO approach, is the vetting of potential buyers. It can be risky to let strangers found on platforms like Craigslist tour your home. A buyer’s broker typically conducts preliminary interviews and ensures that potential buyers are serious and approved.
Open houses present another security challenge. With multiple visitors touring your home simultaneously, it’s impossible for the listing agent to monitor everyone. Therefore, it’s wise to secure valuable items like jewelry and important documents in a safe or lockbox. Medications should also be stored securely, not left in medicine cabinets or on bathroom counters.
In conclusion, while selling your home, whether through a realtor or as a For Sale By Owner, it’s crucial to take common-sense measures to ensure your property and belongings’ safety. Investing a little extra time in security can provide peace of mind throughout the listing period. Your Orson Hill Realty Agent is always available to provide further advice on home safety during the selling process.
Security is an issue while selling your home
When we talk about security while your home is listed and on the market we are talking about steps to make you and your belongings safe. Even if you you are no longer living in your home and it is vacant security is sill an issue. Sometimes real estate agents and brokers don't discuss this with their sellers for whatever reason. Maybe they don't think of it or they don't want their clients to be scared. None the less it is our job as Realtors to explain these things to our sellers if we are the listing agents. One thing that should be said when your home is on the market is that you will most likely have people driving by to look at your home and see how close they can get. One thing you must keep in mind is under no circumstances should you allow someone off the street to come in and check out your home. No matter the circumstance you should give them a flyer or tell them to contact your realtor for a viewing. That way there is an added layer of security there. If your home is vacant your major concern is vandals and kids just coming in to hang out looking for a place to party. Nothing worse than a broker showing up to show your home to a potential buyer and walking in on a bunch of empty beer cans. Even worst some youngsters doing meth in the
house. Then your new buyers go under contract and decide to do a meth test (which are becoming more popular) then your home tests positive for a meth lab. The mitigation is a pretty heavy cost. The best way to protect your home from these things is to keep some lights on when you are not there. Most homes are far enough away from the street in the Denver Foothills that people will see lights and keep on moving. The other thing is to ask your real estate agent or neighbors to do stop-bys every now and then to show traffic moving in and out and to make sure no one is camping out there.
If you have a security system it is kind of common sense to not give your master code out to your real estate agent to give to the listing companies but some people still do. What you need to do is consult your owners manual for your security system or call your monitoring company to walk you through adding a new code. You can also track the use of that code with most alarm systems. You will want to even keep your alarm system active while your home is empty as well. Also be sure to change that code and give it to your real estate agent on a regular basis during your listing period.
One of biggest reasons I would never do my home for sale by owner is that there is no way to know the potential buyer. It is rather dangerous to let strangers through your home that find your home on Craigslist. A buyer broker usually and should do at least some preliminary interviewing of a potential buyer. Most of them have even been approved and been working with that broker for a while.
As far as open house go there is a level of danger there as well. You have strangers walking through and sometimes the listing agent doesn't have enough time to register all the people coming through. They also sometimes have multiple people on multiple floors at the same time. They don't have the ability to watch everybody. So a good thing to do is to put all the jewelry in the safe or a lockbox. Sometimes a drawer isn't the safest place. Another thing that some people over look is medication. Don't just leave it in the medicine cabinet or on the bathroom sink. You will want to secure that as well.
There is a lot of common sense measures you can take to make yourself and belongings safe during the listing period of your home. Take the extra little bit of time for security and piece of mind. You can ask your Orson Hill Realty Agent what they think you should do to help make things safe around your home.
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