Today we're all more conscious of security, and while we can all get impatient at its inconveniences from time to time, we are often thankful for the greater worries it helps us avoid. Selling a home is one area in which security concerns are nothing new; opening your home to strangers is a natural part of the process – and so should be your own safety considerations. It's not about living in fear, but taking a few common-sense precautions so that you don't have to.
Whether or not you are using a Realtor®, you can make sure the sale stays an occasion for business and not an opportunity for crime. Remove any valuables or lock them away before an open house or other showing of your home. Never leave an answering-machine message telling when you aren't home, and never divulge sensitive personal details like your work hours – it might seem like a selling point to tell prospective buyers how quickly you can get to your job from this location, but it can also clue would-be burglars in on when to return.
Though the safeguards are simple, there are many of them to remember, and that is one area in which using a Realtor® can strongly help. The businesslike approach of a real estate agent – limiting showings to certain hours, obtaining background information on potential buyers, etc. – might be more acceptable to customers coming from a professional. And in this day and age, Realtors® themselves have to take precautions which make them all the more alert and sensitive to your own security.
Many ERA® sales professionals, for example, take care to show the home to only one group of families at a time. The set number accentuates the feeling of the Realtor® giving personal attention to your potential buyers, and also allows him or her to keep track of their whereabouts.
In addition, a common practice of full-service real estate companies is pre-approval through a program such as ERA Mortgage; such a process not only enables a background check on the prospective buyer, but also helps determine their seriousness as customers and saves you time.
It's always a relief to leave the complex real estate selling process to the experts, and now Realtors® are experts in safety measures that can also put your mind at rest. It may be the way you want to go for both state-of-the-art service and a "real" sense of security.
