When selling your Myrtle Beach property it is imperative that your your home and your belongings are as safe as possible. There are professional theives that contact agents to view homes. They obviously are not wanting to see these homes to purchase, but to see what type of items they can pick up.
They may have visited during an open house, or seen a picture online of the home and think this home may be a good target. As an Myrtle Beach real estate agent, it is our duty to try and keep everyone together when showing a home, but if there is an entire family along, it is virtually impossible to keep an eye on everyone. The really good pros have partners that they visit with, or even bring along children to help cause distractions.
So, below are a few tips to help keep your house safe.
1. Put away all jewelry. If there is jewely laying around on a dresser or nightstand, it is a very big & easy target for someone to pick up. Either put the precious gems in a locked safe, or if you do not have one, place the gems in either a drawer or in a box. A safe place to place them is in a shoe box in the closet. Or, put in a flat envelope that you can hide in between stacked sweaters on a shelf.
There are plenty of ways to hide them. The key is to make sure they are out of site.
2. Hide the credit cards & bills. With the identity theft on the constant rise, it is crucial that any type of credit cards or mail that you have is secured. Place any mail or cards in either a filing cabinet that can be locked, or in a desk that can be locked. Crooks can be sneaky and will try and find a way to get alone in a house.
3. Remove the Personal Pictures. It is a good idea to put away any personal pictures. One of our clients that is a single woman was very uncomfortable having her house listed for sale because of safety.
One of our suggestions to her was to put away all the pictures that were just of her and only leave out the ones of her with her one cousin. Nobody knew if it was a husband, or relative. This gave her peace of mind.
4. Put away your money! You would think this one would be a no brainer, but I cant even begin to count the number of times I have gone to show homes that have had money sitting around on the kitchen table, or on a dresser, or nightstand. Sometimes there have been rather large amounts of money there too!
Like your jewelry, put this in a locked safe, or safe hidden place.
5. Hide anything with your name, address, phone number, social security number, etc… Just the other day I walked through a home that had prescription bags on the refrigerator with the persons name, telephone number, social security, and address. Some that you may not think of would be the kids softball schedule, or your nursery schedule for church.
These all have enough information that someone could use to steal from you. All they need is your name & phone number, they already have your address, and it can be a giant nightmare.
Here is a funny video, but I think gets the point across as to what could happen!
These are just 5 simple ways to protect yourself when selling your home. If you are currently thinking of selling your home, do not hesitate to contact me.
Jeremy
Jeremy is a full time REALTOR® who specializes in homes for sale throughout the Myrtle Beach Area.
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