Staying Safe When Selling Your Home

Staying organized while selling your home can feel impossible, especially if you’re buying a new home at the same time. There’s also the pressure to keep your home clean and tidy for showings to prospective buyers. In all the chaos, taking the proper safety precautions can fall by the wayside, but it is something that should be prioritized. Keep these safety tips in mind as you work with your agent to sell your home.

We’ve assembled a comprehensive checklist of the common tasks required to get your home ready to sell. It is available as an interactive web page and downloadable PDF here:

• Get Ready to Sell Checklist

How to Prepare for an Open House

Open houses are a major driver of buyer interest. Preparing for an open house is a matter of boosting curb appeal, cleaning, and staging to get your home in tip-top shape. It’s vital that you and your agent take certain safety precautions, given that you likely won’t be on sight when the open houses occur. Buyers often feel uneasy in the presence of the seller when touring a home. It also makes it more difficult for them to visualize the space as their own. Accordingly, it’s best to let your agent handle the open house. Here is a helpful list of how to prepare.

Staying Safe When Selling Your Home

• Go through your medicine cabinets and remove all prescription medications.
• Remove or lock up precious belongings and personal information. You will want to store your jewelry, family heirlooms, and personal/financial information in a secure location to keep them from getting misplaced or stolen.
• It is best to remove all family photos during the staging process so potential buyers can see themselves living in the home; it’s also a good way to protect your privacy.
• Check that your windows and doors are secure before and after showings. If an intruder is looking to get back into your home following a showing or an open house, they will look for weak locks or unlocked windows and doors.
• Consider extra security measures such as an alarm system or other monitoring tools like home security cameras.

Talk to your agent about the following safety precautions:

• Perform a thorough walk-through with your agent to make sure you have identified everything that needs to be removed or secured (medications, belongings, photos, etc.)
• Go over your agent’s screening process so you are both on the same page about how to qualify buyers before showings.
• Lockboxes to secure your keys for showings should be up to date. Electronic lockboxes track who has accessed your home.
• Go through your home’s entrances and exits and share important household information so your agent can advise you on how to secure your property while it’s on the market.