How to Keep Your Valuables Safe While Selling Your Home
When you decide to sell your home, it's important that you know how to keep your valuables safe during the selling process. This is because you will be letting potential buyers into your private space, and these are people whose true intentions you don't know. Have a look at four effective ways in which you can keep your valuables safe as you sell your home.
Keep Your Valuables in a Safe
Secure any valuables including jewelry and sources of personal information before potential buyers start coming in. Valuables not only include family heirlooms but also tech gadgets and important documents. You don't necessarily have to invest in a large safe, especially when you're moving, but you can typically find one online that's relatively easy to hide away in your property, especially with 1.8 billion websites operating every day. Keeping a safe ensures your valuables stay out of sight and out of reach of potential thieves.
Don't Show Alone
When you have people coming over to see your home, it's great to have company with you. If you're working with a realtor, accompany them so that neither of you is alone while potential buyers are walking around your home. Even realtors themselves may need some caution because the industry may have an unscrupulous one or two who won't hesitate to take an opportunity when they see it. If you're not working with a realtor, ask a friend or family member to accompany you. This will not only improve your safety, but it will also make it easy to keep an eye on potential burglars when there's someone else in the house with you, especially since home buyers tend to go for viewings as a couple or in the company of friends.
Install Security Cameras
If a person enters your home under the guise of buying your property, they'll be less likely to steal from you if they see that you have security cameras installed. In fact, according to a recent study, even the police receive 93% fewer complaints from the public when they wear body cameras. This is because people are less likely to commit crimes when they know they run the risk of being caught. Depending on the person's criminal history, as well, they might not want to run the risk of being charged again. Since 2007, a person charged with a 3rd or subsequent offense in their lifetime can be charged with a felony. This makes security cameras a great asset from while you're living in your home to when you're selling it.
Lock Prescription Drugs Away
Finally, thieves may take advantage of homes on sale to find and steal prescription drugs. They could try to blend in with the crowd of potential buyers and sneak away at an opportune moment while you're distracted by other guests to find any drugs left in the open. Before you know it, they will be out of the door with a bottle or two of your medication. Avoid this by keeping all drugs locked up in cabinets with a key, or even keeping them out of sight in a secure drawer.
When you're selling your home and giving potential buyers the opportunity to explore your property, it can often be nerve-wracking. You want to make sure that any valuables and equipment that you have in your home are safe and secure. Consider the four tips above to make sure that both you and your valuables are safe and don't end up in the hands of opportunistic thieves.