Northern Michigan Real Estate

How Safe Will My Home Be?

This is a question that all sellers should be asking their Realtor when they interview them, yet I cannot say that I have ever been asked this question.  There are several things that a Realtor can do to ensure the safety of the homeowner.  The first thing is to have a lockbox that is secure and trackable.  The majority of agents out there are placing lock boxes on homes that they pick up from the local hardware store.  These boxes are easily broken into and they also cannot be traced to who used them.  Agents do have the choice to go with a more sophisticated lock box that will deny access between 8:00 pm and 8:00 am ensuring the privacy of the seller and it also records every agent that was in the house along with the date and time that they were there.  The second thing is to not have open houses.  Did you know that less than 1% of listings are sold through an open house.  Do you want to expose your home to potential robbers for only a 1% chance of it selling.  I can tell you from experience that the only reason Realtors do open houses is to generate potential buyers for other properties.  Open houses may bring potential buyers to your house but the chance of them purchasing that home is slim.  There have been many areas of the country where people attend an open house to see what is in the house and if it is worth coming back to burglarize at a later time.

My advice to any seller interviewing a Realtor is that they ask these two important safety questions:

1. What type of lock box are you using on my home?
2. Do you do open houses?