Selling Your Condo? Open House Tips That Will Keep Your Condo Safe
Hosting an open house can be a good strategy to get people interested in your real estate properties, but whenever you are letting strangers enter your home, you should take additional steps to keep the place safe. This is especially true when you have an open house for a condo. Here are some safety tips that you should follow.
Have More People Help Out
When hosting an open house for a single-family home, it is common to just have the realtor at the house to greet people as they come in and watch over the home. A condo can be a bit different. You have the condo itself that has all of your belongings in it, the common areas of the building, and any additional space in the building that is used for storage or parking. A single agent may not be able to watch over everything at the same time when hosting an open house, which could leave strangers in your home without any supervision.
It will help to have at least two people work the open house. One to stay back at your unit, and another that can walk people through common areas and guide people in and out of the building. For really busy viewings, plan to have groups leave together to see the other areas of the building, and then leave the building at the end of the tour.
Remove Your Valuables
It goes without saying for any open house, but you'll want to remove anything of value that you have out in the open. If you cannot take the things with you, put them in a closet and install a lock on the door. It's not worth the risk of leaving something of high value out in the open, like a laptop, if you are able to easily put it away so someone is not tempted to take it.
If someone really wants to see what kind of storage you have, you could make the key to the closet accessible to your realtor. They can be the ones that lock and unlock the closet if someone wants to check it out inside.
Make Neighbors Aware
Whenever you have people walking through the common area, it helps to make neighbors aware of what is happening. The little courtesy may cause them to take extra precautions, such as picking up packages left in the lobby right away instead of leaving them to pick up later.
For more tips on safety during a condo open house, speak to your realtor.