Hi everybody, Cheryl Knowlton coming at you with this week’s Safety Tip of the Week.
Okay, beating the drum again. You have got to make sure that you take NAR’s amazing course Safety Matters. You can take it online or you could take it live. But no matter how you get it, I strongly encourage you to take it. You can also go to NAR’s website, www.NAR.realtor. Type safety in the search box. You can find all kind so resources and webinars.
What I want to talk to you today about is four tips that you can use to help prepare your seller when you are listing a seller’s property for sale. So, number one, oh let me back that up just a second. All of these ideas come from NAR’s amazing curriculum Safety Matters. These ideas come from a checklist that you can provide to your sellers. It can be found on page 23 of that book. But I’m only going to share four of them with you today.
Are you ready? Let’s do it!
Number one: Put away valuables and information
Number one, you’re going to encourage your seller to put away, prior to every single showing, any credit cards, bank statements, cash, jewelry, furs, guns, prescription medications, checkbooks, anything that either could be stolen or utilized to steal the seller’s identity. It’s our job and real estate professionals to educate our clients at every level. One of those important aspects is helping them keep themselves and their possessions and their homes safe during the process of listing and selling their home.
So, number one, put away anything that could be stolen or could compromise their identity.
Number Two: Fix trip hazards
Number two, encourage your seller to repair any items like loose banisters, carpet, or flooring that is lifted that could be a trip or a fall hazard. Ultimately, if another agent or a buyer walks through that property and has a fall or is injured as a result of something that is negligent on the part of the seller, the seller could be liable. We want to make sure and help educate our sellers to take care of any and all things that could be a trip hazard for potential buyers, and ultimately to check with their homeowner’s insurance. Let the insurance agent know that they are selling their home and see if they need to up their coverage during their listing period.
Number Three: Be careful who you let into your home
Number three, educate your seller not to show the property to any agent or any buyer who just knocks on the door and says hey I’m in the area, do you mind if we take a quick look at your home? We have no idea who those people are. This is especially crucial if your client is a single parent.
If you actually create a piece of your listing presentation specifically geared to safety, you may win that listing over an agent who doesn’t mention it at all. I’ve seen it happen dozens of times as I’ve taught the seller representative specialist course. We’ve talked about safety, if you educate your clients about the things that they need to do to keep themselves, their children, their family, their possessions safe, including not opening the door to anyone who just happens to wander by. We have no idea who those people are. You may win that listing.
So, there’s a piece of business advice and safety advice.
Number Four: How to deal with vacant homes
Last but not least, number four. If the property is vacant, encourage your seller or proactively create a sign that says this property is not for rent. Unfortunately, there are a lot of bad actors out there who will find a vacant property that is listed on the multiple listing service. They will create a Craigslist, or KSL.com ad or Marketplace listings that say that a property is for rent when they have no interest in the property whatsoever, trying to scam people out of their money. If you live in Utah, you’re familiar with what KSL is. If they live in another state, the FBI has no way to ever get those funds back, it is a gigantic scam, and a terrible, terrible thing. So, putting a sign, big sign, in the window, this property is not for rent will help prevent that from happening.
There are four tips from the many listed on this, on page 23, ideas for you for your seller. I would love to hear from you. If you’ve got additional ideas, like, comment, share this video with other real estate professionals so we can keep this conversation going, create more ideas and a bank of really great suggestions. We can keep our sellers safe while they are in the process of listing and selling their home.
I hope you take and utilize these ideas to explosively grow your business, and be successful in all that you do.