Real estate industry itself is not an
unsafe zone. That being said, there is no harm in being extra cautious about
your home and more importantly your personal information.
Here are a few things you can do –
1. Do a subtle background check
Whenever people come to see your home, note down their number and name. Later you can use the name or contact details to learn about their backgrounds from social media. Just some subtle background check, don’t be creepy.
But before you look up your potential home buyer, you should ask a few questions in person.
2. Protect your personal information
If you look around your home, you would find tons of personal information. This information could be on your refrigerator, in your calendar or even on your tea table.
Before someone can use information like “Jim’s class tomorrow will end at 3” from your refrigerator, make sure to clean them up. Besides, the personal information can be in your diary or on the back of your magazine. So be careful when you leave them unattended in your living room.
3. Safe keep your home belongings
In the buying season, people will come into your home to check it in odd hours. So, there is a possibility that some random people acting as a buyer could come to your house to steal stuff. That’s why it is important that you keep all your valuable belongings in a safe place.
Don’t leave your jewelry, phone, laptop and other valuable assets lying here and there.
4. Register your home with a known realtor
I assume, like most people, you will also want to keep the number of visitors in your home to a minimum. To do so, you will need to register your house with a renowned realtor in your area. Talk to your friends and neighbors about your search for a trusted realtor if you don’t know one personally. Once you get a good realtor, he will register your home on MLS or Multiple Listing Service. This will mean other realtors can check out your home but only with prospective buyers. Since most of the potential buyers coming through realtors are screened, you only get the legit buyers who has mortgage pre-approval or enough money to seal the deal.
5. Open house is not a good option
The concept of an open house is getting the attention of a good number of people keeping the home open-to-visit for anyone. Surely some legit buyers will knock at your door. But with those legit buyers, you will also get some peepers who just want to stroll around your house. And the crucial part is, you can’t even know if someone really came here with an interest to buy your house or just wandering around and waiting for you to offer a cup of coffee. So, to be safe, I would suggest avoiding open house tactics entirely from your sales plan.
