Open House and a Gun Safe

[Erebus]

If you are having an open house for a house you are selling and there is a gun safe in it what do you do. Isn't an issue for me at this time but could be in the near future and want to know before hand the best way to handle it. I don't want every Tom, Dick, and Harry walking through the house to see the safe. What should I do?

Move the safe to a trust worthy friend's house prior to? Will still have my carry weapon so that isn't an issue.

Cover it?

Suggestions?

 

[johnmcl]

Simple Answer

Erebus,

Don't worry about it, dude.

You've got a gun *safe*, not a gun cardboard box. You're protected against all but the most determined of thieves. If some prospective perp is casing your house, considerably easier valuables will go first.

In short, show away, you're covered.

John

 

[thegriz]

A word of caution

Somebody might think they can hit the jackpot when they see the safe. Suppose they wait until your wife comes home from the grocery store, surprise her and force her inside. They make threats to get the combo, key, whatever. Then maybe they wait for you to come home if she can't help. If they have a plan and the element of surprise (and your wife) how are you going to stop them?

You never know what some nut may do. I say the less visiblity you have the better. In some cases the more secure your valuables the higher the danger for your family. That's why I think you're asking an excellent question. I hope you move or conceal the safe before the open house.

Kudos to you for having a safe and for asking a very intelligent question.

 

[RedAlert]

Cover or screen

You could cover it to disguise its appearance.
Or you could place a Japanese Shoji Screen in front of it to conceal it.

Either way, making it less visible shouldn't be hard to do.

RDF

 

[Kenneth Lew]

Is it really necessary to have an open house?

My suggestion is to have the realtor place photos of the house on the MLS and place it by appointment only where there is some sort of screening available.

Cons in having an open house:
1. Every Tom, Dick, and Harry will be going through it from top to bottom.
2. You have no control over what goes on depending upon the foot traffic coming in.
3. People tend to borrow stuff.
4. People tend to leave a mess.

 

[Jorg Nysgerrig]

Keep in mind that prospective buyers want to see everything. Especially if they are getting serious. They will want to see the insides of closets, drawers, peek behind furniture to look for damage, and so forth.

If you try to conceal the safe, you are going to draw even more attention to it.

 

[vynx]

I have read that holding an Open House does NOT help sell your house - they are only good for giving a large number of agents the chance to see a house and train rookies - I wouldn't allow a realtor to shopw my house except by appt. - eliminates the looky louses (?)

If you are still going to hold it - cover it with a sheet or bedspread and pile stuff on top & around so as to disguise it a little.

 

[Rexrider]

Our house was on the market and we were faced with this same problem when the realtor thought we should consider an open house.

The first way to deal with this was to put a lock on the room the safe was in and tell the realtor that room was off limits. Period. If anyone really wanted to see the room then they could make an appointment for a private walk through.

I was concerned this may make people even more curious about what was in the room but I figured curious was better then actually knowing what was in the room.

The second way to deal with this problem is not to have an open house. I found it rather unnerving thinking about having strangers walking through my house all day long. I told the realtor an open house was not an option. Besides, most honest realtors will tell you an open house is a waste of time. All it does is let your neighbors see your home and gives people something to do on a Saturday afternoon. Any interested buyers will make an appointment to see the house anyway.

Side note: We ended up taking the house off the market because we did not have to sell it. The only reason it was for sale was to cash out. But we missed the peak and saw the market was going down. We were lucky we bought low, I saw no reason to sell low. If you really need to sell, re-evaluate your asking price.

 

[Zundfolge]

Hide the safe. While you're at it, remove any prescription pain killers from the medicine cabinet.


I'm in the process of selling a house and we were under contract with a buyer.

The day came for her to do the official "home inspection" so she, her realtor and the home inspector got to spend several hours alone in our house.


After all was said and done, we noticed that someone had removed several tablets of Darvocet from our medicine cabinet (left over from a surgery my wife had a few months ago). This prompted us to search around the house and I noticed that one of my handguns was missing! (No I don't have a safe, yes, shame on me).

So either the buyer (or her boyfriend who showed up at the end of the inspection), the inspector or the realtor stole drugs and a gun from my house (I suspect the realtor because he was left alone the most). This caused the deal to go south so we had to put the house back on the market.

This happened on the 16th of this month, so I'm still in the process of working all this mess out with the police (everyone who was in the house is going to take a polygraph ... including me) so thats why I haven't posted publicly about all this.



Or Realtor told us that open houses are an act of desperation when you can't get any interest in a property that is either undesirable or overpriced. So they aren't absolutely necessary for your home to sell.

But still treat "appointment showings" as just as much of a security risk as open houses (and when you're under contract, same goes for the home inspection).

 

[lionking]

interesting question as I have my house for sale right now and the safe is plain as day but Im not worried since Im using a realtor and they screen buyers to rid of people not able of buying a house.

Too bad the market is dead right now cause Im eager to move on yet Im not going to drop my price too dramaticly.Open house is a waste of time,depending your area,if someone is serious they will contact for an appointment.
Besides if someone DID ask whats in it I tell them more guitars,since I have a few guitars in the open.I would advise that you keep ALL firearms locked up specially if realtors bring people over anytime thay want.

 

[Zundfolge]

Im not worried since Im using a realtor and they screen buyers to rid of people not able of buying a house.

Go reread my post. You can't necessarily trust Realtors nor their buyers just because they've been prequalified for a loan.


Although I imagine if I had a gun safe all that would be missing was the pain killers (and we'd have let that go until after closing)

 

[lionking]

zundfolge saw what you said after I posted.Im not concerned because I cant really do anything about hiding the safe,since the realtor prescreens them at least I know they are serious about buying though I know its no guarantee that they are'nt thieves.

When I put it on the market I boxed up all stuff that I didnt want stolen put it in the closets,and it makes the house looks spacious and clean also.

 

[lionking]

quote rexrider; If you really need to sell, re-evaluate your asking price.

I have,Im 30-40 thousand less than most in my area and still its been dead,think people are waiting for hurricane season to be over who knows.
and I hate Miami anymore so yeah,lower price or not Im commited,though prices might lower where I want to go anyway.

 

[1 old 0311]

I would leave the door open on a empty safe. SHOW them its empty.

 

[AK103K]

You basically have two choices, one deal with it, or two, remove the guns or safe. We recently sold our house. Went through a couple of open houses and about 40 showings. Never had any kind of problem. I had built a cabinet around my safe when we moved in, just to keep it more or less out of sight. When the house went up for sale, I put a little "tell tale" on top of the cabinet door so I would know it had been opened. I also always set the dial to a specific number. After every showing, the door had been opened, but the dial had never been touched. Nobody ever made a comment about it.

The realtors tell you in the beginning to empty the clutter, and getting as much of your gun related stuff out to doesnt hurt. Having a 125 pound Rottie running around the house, requiring that they give you notice and a specific time they are coming, so you can get the dog out(and the reason why) and not leaving a lock box on the door until you leave, keeps you in a little more control and some of the worry down.

As sort of a side note here, when you move, look into getting a piano dolly. They make moving the safe a whole lot easier, and safer. Works great if you just have to move it around for rugs and such too. I was able to move mine around with the guns still in it when they did our floors.

Good luck selling your house and with the move. The market here took a major dump and screeched to a halt. We got out of ours just in time. Carrying two mortgages really sucks!

 

[ralphie98]

I don't know anybody personally who has sold their house from having an open house. The neighbor across the street has had an open house every sat. & sun. for the last month and it hasn't helped. The thoughts that others had about not bothering with the open house is something to consider. As far as I'm concerned, its just a way for realtors to get face time with interested buyers to hopefully pick up more clients.

When we were house hunting I noticed 3 houses that had safes in them. One of them had the safe next to his utilities and had some stuff leaning against the safe, and I barely noticed it. That is probably the way I would go.

 

[AK103K]

As far as I'm concerned, its just a way for realtors to get face time with interested buyers to hopefully pick up more clients.

I think your right here, although, we did have a good number of people come through on the couple they had at our place. Then again, 40 others came through individually and it was #41 that did it.

Summer of 2005, they were selling in a couple of days. When WE finally get it up for sale, its a buyers market and it sits for 6 months.

 

[nplant]

You could also consider telling your Realtor to stuff the Open House in his or her you-know-what.

My friends who are Realtors have told me candidly that an Open House is primarily a way to drum up business for the agent, not to actually sell the house. Remember that if someone and their agent want to see your house, they will come by and get the key out of the lock box.

I'd say skip the Open House altogether - just my opinion.

 

[iohk]

This is somewhat on a tangent to the whole Open House issue but, when I was selling my house in an ultra-liberal area of Colorado, the realtor wanted me to get the gun safe out of the house so that prospective buyers wouldn't have their delicate sensibilities offended when they walked in the room and saw it.

 

[Taurus 66]

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Given enough time, ANY safe can be broken into. Why give crooks that luxury?

I would leave the door open on a empty safe. SHOW them its empty.

Or as the guests are taking the grand tour, here's what you do:

While checking out the master bedroom, wheel the safe to the livingroom. As they double back to check out the dining room, slip it past them back to the second bedroom. If they decide to double back once again to check out the second bedroom, the tour guide should once again divert their attention like, "Did you see the bathroom?", you get the wave that all is clear, then wheel the safe past them into the master bedroom, but not the livingroom, unless you use the closet, but "only" if they've already looked in there.

Hope this helps ...

 

[Michael Courtney]

Is it really necessary to have an open house?

My suggestion is to have the realtor place photos of the house on the MLS and place it by appointment only where there is some sort of screening available.

Cons in having an open house:
1. Every Tom, Dick, and Harry will be going through it from top to bottom.
2. You have no control over what goes on depending upon the foot traffic coming in.
3. People tend to borrow stuff.
4. People tend to leave a mess

I would avoid the open house. Too much of a security problem for other reasons as well. If someone wants to see a house I'm selling, it's by appointment only, and I insist of name, address, and contact info of everyone entering my home. I usually know where they work too. If they don't check out as a plausible buyer for a $350,000 home, they don't get to come in and look around.

Michael Courtney

 

[Hank Zudd]

yea, real estate markets

sucks right now, espically if you need to sell on a schedule; sold my casa ($550,00-1500sf duet{duplex}) outside San Francisco last summer in 4 days after one open house. Had my safe in the office closet, covered up. We also had another jewlery/doc. safe in the bedroom closet covered up. Worse that just letting folks wander (the agent was there all the time & kept eyes on all) is having to "stage" the house; removing personal pictures, lots of other stuff; more to make yours look like one of those model homes you see in new tracts. I guess it depends on where you live. Here in Central Texas our neighbor moved to his lakefront retirement home, and every weekend the agent just puts up the open house signs, unlocks the door & leaves till dark. There's nothing in the house to steal, but it could still be tore up some. Houses sell very slowly here (30 miles east of Austin); good luck to all looking to improve your lifestyle.

 

[atomchaser]

I've sold a couple houses fsbo. Open houses weren't particularily effective and if multiple people were in the house, it made me nervous. Interested buyers will call and make an appointment. I had a gun safe in my last house and nobody seemed to really care. I wouldn't leave the door open on the safe. I can just see some kid smashing his finger in it (my own 3 yo comes to mind). I like the idea of building some sort of fake cabinet around it and may do that next time around.

 

[ramon]

Hide it

I deal with crime every day. I have seen burglaries where safes were pried off the wall or floor and removed by crooks shortly after open houses. The real fear is that someone comes back and commits an armed robbery on anyone present in the house. THE SOLUTION: I've been to many open houses where the garage is deadbolted closed during the open house. I'm sure the owners place valuables and private items in the garage. Makes sense and genuinely interested buyers can be shown the garage later. Its not too hard for a r/e agent to describe a two or three car garage to causual viewers. Good luck.

 

[Atticus]

I'd forego the open house. I went through the same process early this summer. Our realtor is in the top 5 nationally for sales, and NEVER holds an open house, in fact, he strongly recommends not having them. Serious potential buyers are going to go through the enire house with a fine-tooth comb...there's really no way to hide the safe. I draped mine with a blanket at first...then just said hell with it. We sold our house and the safe resides in my new basement now.