Good Advice From a Fellow Realtor®: Thoughts to Consider While Your Home is Under Contract But Not Quite Sold

Leigh Brown is a Realtor ® in North Carolina but no matter, good advice is good advice. She blogged about a recent story involving a seller, and has good tips for you if you have a contract on your house but it is not quite closed yet (or as I say, the ink is not totally dry on the contract until the Title transfers lol). Check out what Leigh has to say here. Peace Out - 3C

Selling Your Home and Living Elsewhere? Beware of Copper Pipe Thieves

An article on the Cleveland.com website by Donna Miller reminded me of this issue. Those of us in the real estate business are very aware and I personally know agents who have had vandalism/pipe theft in their clients' vacant homes. I'm glad three of the thieves in Akron were caught red handed.

What can you do to help protect yourselves? First I suggest alerting your city police or the Cleveland Police District in which your 'for sale' home is located. The police are always saying they will provide some extra neighborhood patrols to help.

Secondly, you might want to have your real estate agent provide keys in their office for other agents to show buyers, as opposed to a lock box. Times are tough and copper pipe provides a decent rate of exchange for thieves. Oh and by the way, hot water heaters have been stolen as well.

If you live in the area, visit your vacant home frequently and at irregular hours. Or have relatives or friends do the same. If a thief is 'casing the joint' they won't be able to establish a pattern of time when no one is ever home.

Keep lights on in the basement and/or other parts of the house. I know it costs money but it's much better than having thousands of dollars in home repairs if something is stolen.

If you have one of those beautiful Cleveland homes with the character of leaded or stained glass included and the house is vacant and for sale? Do not let your agent put a lock box on the door. Seriously. This is another area that experienced a rash of theft about a year ago. Agents from all brokerages networked and the solution we came up with was to not use lock boxes. Your agent can keep keys with them and provide copies at their offices. Just a few tips from the trenches. Peace Out - 3C

Want To Sell Your Home? This is Good Advice

I already have a link to her blog but, this post is so good, I'm not even going to add anything myself, just say, if you want to list your home this Spring, read this list of things not to do...it's great advice from Maureen in Michigan.

Peace Out - 3C

Shovel or Sweep That Pesky Snow if Your Home is For Sale

If you have your home on the market, your Realtor® has probably told you that a clean house is crucial to 'looking good' to a potential buyer. I have a past blogpost on Hints to having your home ready for buyers.

Now that we have some snow on the ground, don't you want to keep that snow outside instead of on your beautiful floors or carpets? Keep your sidewalks and the walkway to your door (or your driveway for that matter) free of snow. Yes we can ask people to park their shoes at the door. But what if they don't listen?

Sweeping the porch and stairs can make a big difference. First it enhances the curb appeal of your home on dreary winter days. Imagine the look of horror on your own face when you hear that someone fell on the snowy stairs on your porch and broke an arm. It keeps all the civil law suits in Judge Judy's courtroom (is her show still on?) on television, and not on the docket of your real life!

I previewed homes today for clients and it amazed me that not one of them had swept away the snow. That's why I am making this plea to you. If you cannot sweep the snow yourself, your Realtor® can advise you of a list of people to call. And let's hope that pesky groundhog Phil was correct and winter is almost over!

OK. I'm on my way to sweep off the porch for my mailman now :-) Peace Out - 3C