Safety Concerns |
Once you have decided to put your house on the market, you have now committed to allowing potential buyers (strangers) into your home. Be Careful!!! If your house was not for sale and someone knocked on your door and asked to come in and look around, would you allow this. Probably not. Why? Because you do not know who this person is and you would open yourself up to possible robbery, physical assault, or worse. Most real estate agents know who their buyers are. They have pre-qualified them with a lender, they have a contact number or address, they know the persons social security number because of the lender, and some agents require a copy of the buyers drivers license before taking them out. Why does an agent go to this trouble? Because they never know who is telling the truth. We have represented many buyers in the past. We always have a lender tell us how much home this person can afford. We would never show a $200,000 home to a buyer who can only afford $140,000. Besides wasting our time, this would be an invasion of time and privacy to the $200,000 seller. Consider this scenario, it has happened. A nicely dressed couple comes to your door to see the house. They called yesterday, Tuesday, and asked to see the house today at one in the afternoon or six in the evening, whichever is best for you. You said six in the evening is fine. They show up right on time. You show them around the house. They make all the right comments about how this just might be the house they have been looking for. He loves this room for his office, she would make that room into her sewing area. At one time or another they end up in two different rooms at the same time. They have spent 15 minutes in your home, thank you very much, tell you that they are going home to discuss the possibilities of writing an offer and leave. The next day, Thursday, you come home from work at 5:30 to find that your house has been emptied of everything. What happened? You have been robbed by very clever professionals. Judging by your answer that 6 in the evening would work better for the showing, they correctly assumed that you work during the day. For the short time that one of them was out of your sight, that person unlocked one of your windows for easy access. After watching you leave for work the next day, a moving van was signaled to arrive, the window was opened by someone who then unlocked the front door, and the moving van carted everything away. One of your neighbors saw this and was very happy that you had sold your house so soon. Again, this has happened. Here are a few guide lines to help you with your safety concerns: 1. Secure your valuables. If you have jewelry or other small items, consider renting a safe deposit box if you do not have one, they are not expensive. If you have valuable collectibles or art work, maybe you have trusted friends or relatives who would allow you to store these items at their house. Never leave any money in open sight. 2. Do not discuss your work schedule with strangers. They do not need to know when you will not be home. 3. When any buyer calls for an appointment, always ask for a contact phone number. Call them back on that number to verify that they have given you correct information. You can come up with a good excuse to call them at that number. 4. Ask them if they can bring you a pre-qualifyng letter from their lender that will come close to your asking price. Any legitimate buyer will expect this question. 5. After any showing, always go around to each door and window to make sure it has not been tampered with. 6. If possible, walk your buyer out to their car, thank them for coming, and record their license plate number. |
Jeannine Cutter (702) 283-8882 David Berg (702) 281-5827 |
