Selling your home can be a time-consuming process, especially when it comes to cleaning and organizing before last-minute showings. While it may seem as if your to-do list is a mile long, it’s important to take the time to secure your valuables before prospective buyers come to view your home.
 
With any showing or open house, you never know exactly who will be walking through your house and looking at your things. While your agent will do his or her best to make sure nothing is taken, remember that they can’t have their eyes on everyone in the house at all times, making it important to take a few safeguards to ensure that your most priceless belongings are safe.
 
This includes everything from a valuable piece of jewelry you keep in the bedroom, an antique pen you have on your desk or even an old toy that might attract a collector’s eye.
 
The easiest way to protect your stuff is to simply get it out of the house and keep it in the home of a loved one, or, for rare and expensive items, a bank deposit box.
 
If that’s not an option, find a place within the home to hide valuable belongings, or keep them in a suitcase that you can bring with you every time you leave the house.
 
Safety steps like these should also be considered for personal information and file cabinets that may contain papers with various account numbers and/or social security information. And don’t forget medicine cabinets, as this is often an area that people like to steal from.
 
When leaving before a showing, make sure all doors and windows are locked, and be sure they’re still locked when you return. Prospective buyers may open windows or doors to make sure they work, or to see another part of the home, and while it may seem far-fetched, there have been incidents where people unlock doors when looking at a home and go back later to steal things.
 
Real estate agents have also noted another tactic that involves people coming to the house multiple times, bringing a new person with them to explore rooms when the agent is being distracted. This person could then go about taking items that may have been seen earlier.
 
Taking this one step further, you may want to think about investing in an alarm system—if you don’t already have one. Not only will an alarm deter burglars from entering your home, the addition of an alarm system can be used as a strong selling point.
 
For those selling a house that they’re not currently living in, you might want to consider installing motion light sensors that turn on automatically when it gets dark. You can also put a few lamps on a timer so that it appears as if someone is home.
 
Reach out to your neighbors and ask them to keep an eye out for anything suspicious, and introduce them to your agent as well.
 
To learn more about protecting your valuables, contact me today.