In the spirit of Halloween, Amit & Roy Bhandari will be running a daily anecdote that we are calling “A Week of Real Estate Horror Stories”.  These are real stories that we have heard from our fellow colleges.  These stories are not designed to scare you from buying or selling Real Estate, but rather offer a friendly reminder that the Real Estate Transaction can be extremely complex and without the proper guidance, things can (and have) gone horribly wrong.

When you list your home for sale, you are going to have people walk through your home, and not all of them are as honest as You and I.

Our first ghoulish tale revolves around a busy Open House, some missing jewelry and some very upset clients.

A home was listed for sale in an upper class area in Mississauga and during the first weekend the Listing Agent held an Open House.  As expected, there was a very good turn out with approximately 20 people going through the home during the two-hour window.  At any given time, there were 4-5 families wandering, unattended through the home.

Upon finishing up, the Listing Agent was happy to have completed a successful Open House and had a number of guests that had expressed interest in the home.   Later that night, the agent got a very angry call from the home owners stating that people had ruffled through their dresser and stolen some very expensive items of jewelry, including a ring that had tremendous sentimental value.

The Agent had no record of any people who came through the home (no guest registry), and due to the large volume of people that had come through was unable to assist with much information as to the whereabouts of the missing jewelry.  The homeowners were obviously very upset but had little recourse as they were unable to prove that the jewelry was stolen during the open house.

It was an extremely messy situation and could have been avoided with some careful planning by the Listing Agent.  Here are a list of how Amit & Roy conduct an Open House – a system that is designed for the safety of your home and also to increase the effectiveness of the Open House.  After all, the purpose of the Open House is to find a BUYER for your home!

1) ALWAYS, WITHOUT FAIL take names and addresses of people coming through the home.  Some people feel uncomfortable giving their names to the Listing Agent upon entering the home, however, it is for security purposes and if you are selling your home you should insist on it.  If a guest refuses to sign the registry, they should not be allowed through the home.

If the agent in the story above had a list of people who came through the home, they would have had something to work with to find the culprit.

2) Have your agent walk any guests through the home ONE AT A TIME.  There is nothing more chaotic than an Open House with 4-5 families walking through the home.  As an agent working for my seller, I like to have an idea of who is coming through the open house; for example, if there were 20 families walking through, how many of them were nosy neighbours, how many were legitimately interested, how many were just looking etc.  The only way I can effectively do this is to ASK QUESTIONS and by spending a little time with the guests.  There is no way I can gather this information if I have 5 families walking through by themselves.  We like to set up a sitting area for people waiting to go through the home while we walk guests through.

I’m convinced that, had our Listing Agent in the story walked through all the guests 1 at a time, no valuables would have been stolen.  Not only that, but he would have far more valuable information regarding the 20 guests who walked through the home that he could report back to his clients.

3) And finally, please lock away any valuables.  If you have a safe-deposit box at a bank, put any valuables away for safe keeping during the time it takes to sell your home.  If you have a friend you can trust, leave the valuables with them during the time that people will be going through your home.  It is virtually impossible for any agent to take inventory levels of all the items in the home.

Thank you for reading, and we look forward to spooking you out tomorrow with another “Real Estate Horror Story” tomorrow!