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D’Ann Bartley
Realtor®, CRS, e-PRO, G.R.I.
DRE License # 00906544
(805) 937-5777Direct:
(866) 937-5777Toll Free:
Serving the Santa Maria Valley and surrounding Central Coast areas
Santa Maria, Orcutt, Nipomo, Lompoc & Arroyo Grande
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Your House For Sale, Open or Not?
Published on August 31st, 2011
D'Ann Bartley
I’m wondering how sellers feel about the concept of welcoming total strangers into their homes at the typical weekend Open House. The sellers spend lots of time preparing/cleaning the house first, and then they leave for the afternoon during the designated hours, while their Realtor hosts. Now anyone can come to an Open House, right? Whether or not it is affordable…it might be fun just to see how it’s decorated! Or (perish the thought), to see if anything of value has been left out that can be “borrowed” while the agent is distracted by another house browser… and it’s acceptable to open the closets up, right? Obviously, in this home, there is only a woman living here alone; no men’s clothing at all. Hmmmm….Do you see where I’m going with this? Is this a form of insanity? Why would we let total strangers into our homes? If a person is a serious buyer who wants to see the interior of a home, will they not contact their real estate agent and make an appointment to view the home? That is the only thing that makes sense to me. Qualified buyers entering the home via a pre-scheduled appointment! Otherwise, the home is open 24/7 on the internet, without endangering anyone, including the real estate agent who is definitely vulnerable at an Open House, particularly a vacant one. Please share your comments, and I’ll get off my soapbox now!
What is your opinion?
By all means, stay on the soapbox!
A few weeks ago there was a funny episode of TV’s “Breaking Bad” in which a slightly disturbed woman takes advantage of open houses to act dubiously– including the theft of a few items!
But as a Realtor with decades of experience, wouldn’t you also attest that most people behave nicely, and isn’t it often an extra selling point for people to walk through a house? As wonderful as the Internet is, nothing beats experiencing a home for yourself. Speaking of the Internet, one of the ways sites can cut down on undesirables is to insist on publicly registering them. Maybe one possible solution to ensure the safety of the homeowner’s person and property is to have some sort of mandatory registration at the door– or maybe a prominent video camera would do the trick!
Thanks for your comment! Yes, most people behave nicely, but all it takes is one who doesn’t (the rotten apple that spoils the barrel). Two issues: seller safety and Realtor safety. This post concentrated on seller & property safety, without touching much on agent safety, but there are many horror stories on that subject. This post was triggered partly by a situation locally over the weekend. Three people knocked at the door of a listed property, told the seller that his agent had told them to “come on over and take a look”, he let them in, and while one distracted him, the others stole jewelry and drugs. While this didn’t happen at an “Open House”, if business practice was to only allow potential buyers onto the property with an appointment, perhaps this seller wouldn’t have been so naive. Your suggestions for security precautions could work, but seem unfriendly — much like requiring a website visitor to “register” before getting any information. It automatically puts the visitor on the defense. Easier to avoid the whole thing, and let an interested buyer call their agent for an appointment. Then the seller can rest assured (at least 99%) the buyer has been prequalified with the buyer’s agent and a lender. Thanks again for your input!