Selling a home can be scary. Whenever large amounts of money are switching hands and highly personal information is involved, a high-stress environment naturally forms for your clients in a real estate transaction.
The more you can mitigate that stress as an agent, the more successful you will be selling a property. Having safety at the heart of your offer will not only lead to better client relationships, but also to more referrals from happy clients and consequently more closes in the long run!
Today, we will go over 3 crucial ways realtors can keep their sellers safe in a transaction:
- Internal security (before the sale)
- External security (during the sale)
- Financial security (after the sale)
Ready to discover 3 tips that will improve the efficiency and safety of your business today? Let’s get started!
3 Ways to Offer Safety to Clients in a Real Estate Transaction
In this section, we discuss three ways you can make selling a property safer for your client by helping them monitor internal security, external security, and financial security.
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Monitor Internal Security of Home
Having people inside your sellers´ homes during an open house can be extremely nerve-wracking. You can take these following precautions to drastically reduce the risk of an incident:
- Hide or remove everything valuable!
From expensive objects like jewelry, gadgets, artwork, or weapons to items containing personal information such as prescription meds, family photos with owners, or address books, make sure to give as little information as possible to prospective buyers while still making the home feel “homey”.
- Keep track of everyone coming in and out.
Consider making everyone sign in on an iPad or sign-up sheet for good measure. This can be difficult to do in large showings, so you may consider bringing along an assistant or volunteer designated for the job. If anyone has bad intent, they will not put their real name on the sheet. You may ask for a license plate number or to see ID, as long at it is not invasive to other prospective buyers.
- Limit available entrances into the home.
Lock all other doors or entrances that are not being monitored.
- Be alert of the patterns of arrivals at your open house.
Sometimes large groups will show up together towards the end of an opening and try to distract the agent while others wander about to steal valuables. It may behoove you to have a secret shopper at the open house for its duration.
These strategies will help keep sellers safe before the sale! Check out this link for more safety tips to share with sellers!
2. Monitor External Security of the House
Just because the door of the open house has now closed does not mean the risks are shut out with it. The safety of sellers goes way beyond the initial open house. Even with a general control like a sign-up sheet or active surveillance cameras, people are not always who they say they are.
It is important to guarantee the safety of the physical property, whether your clients are still residing in the home or not. Offer the following advice to your sellers during the transaction process:
- Make sure all windows and doors are locked after a showing. Someone may have left a window slightly cracked to facilitate easy access.
- Don’t be sparing when it comes to deadbolts and locks. Old faulty locks and absent homeowners are the perfect recipe for breaking and entering.
- It is worth suggesting a home security system to protect their property. This gives sellers instant ease, and there are many affordable options with HD video and audio surveillance.
These strategies will help keep sellers safe while the sale is being finalized! Click here for more tips on how to protect your sellers’ homes during a showing.
3. Offer Financial Security: Errors & Omissions Insurance
In a real estate transaction, it is not just physical possessions that can get lost. There is a lot of money on the line, especially if legal issues arise. Sometimes disgruntled buyers come back and file claims after the sale. To put this fear to rest and protect sellers, we suggest you acquire Errors & Omissions (E&O) insurance for your sellers.
E&O insurance provides the following benefits:
- Protects clients for up to 6 months after the close of escrow.
- Includes coverage of potential legal fees.
- When coupled with a home warranty, E&O creates the total safety package!
New Venture Escrow clients: Don’t worry! We present an Errors & Omissions policy on behalf of you, the agent, to your seller on every closing. This is a treat you can’t get anywhere else! Closing has never been so secure!
E&O insurance protects clients and gives them peace of mind – something important that will inevitably get you more listings and give you a more competitive advantage.
Do Your Sellers Feel Safe?
Now let’s do a little self-evaluation: Do your sellers feel that their internal, external and post-sale safety is guaranteed?
As a realtor, make sure to:
- Brief sellers on internal safety
- Encourage them to invest in external safety
- Reassure their financial safety via Errors & Omissions Insurance
By guaranteeing the safety of your sellers before, during, and after a sale, you will be creating a reputation of security that will dramatically increase your credibility and value in the real-estate world.
Not only will you have a huge competitive advantage, but you’ll make business a breeze by minimizing the stress and anxiety of a real-estate transaction. When all is said and done, you’ll be nothing short of a hero in their eyes as the agent that had their best interests at heart!
