Selling A House And Firearms

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Good Ol' Boy

Good Ol' Boy

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I'm curious of those of you that have gone through the process of selling your house and have a stockpile of firearms and ammo. What did you do, what was your process?

This is open to both folks that have mass safes as well as folks like myself that just rely on exterior and interior locks on doors.

My main concerns are are you there when the showing is happening and are you worried at all that whomever now knows that at minimum you have huge safes in your home?

Any other suggestions?
 
I wouldn't worry about someone seeing my safe.

If I didn't have a safe, I would put a keyed lock on a bedroom closet and store my guns there during the showing process.
 
I just sold my home and had to keep my safe there during the showings and sales process. I concealed all evidence of guns in the house except for the safe. As far as anyone knew there could have been anything in the safe.
 
When I sold my last two houses I had my safes well concealed in the basement and had removed all of my reloading equipment from my work bench. All of my ammo, gun books, and miscellaneous gun related stuff was stored in boxes already.

Typically most folks who do go down into the basement are checking on the furnace and hot water tank and looking for any possible water damage or problems with the foundation.

Guns and accessories are out of sight, out of mind (hopefully).
 
When i sold my house four years ago I moved all my guns (except a pistol) to storage while the house was on the market.

I did not trust that people weren’t casing my house, and also I wanted to ensure that my house was marketable to as many as possible. Some folks are weird about that stuff...
 
You should never be present when buyers are looking unless you’re selling it yourself. It’s a major turn off for many buyers. When I sold my condo, I had a medium sized safe that I moved to the storage area and covered with a moving pad. I put my AR under the bed and my pistol in a drawer. Condo was staged to the bare minimum with no extras, especially nothing guns, political or religious. That was in a very antigun area and in an expensive building FULL of people opposite of me.

When I sell my current house, I’ll just leave the safes with the house. I’m not hauling safes 1500 miles. I’m very rural now and it will be a selling point or indifferent to most local buyers, but not likely a negative.

Insurance covers anything someone steals and reputable realtors carefully track showings.
 
Have done. Had a gun closet in that house. Kept it locked and not one viewer ever asked about it apparently.
 
The previous owner of my current house had a closet devoted to his gun stuff, there was a large safe and then he had other gun-related stuff stored in the cubbies. However, that closet was locked when I viewed the house and even when the inspector came. My agent made a fuss and I finally saw it the day of the final walkthrough.

The day I viewed the house the time window was like 20 minutes and afterwards I went to the agent's house to discuss things, and mentioned I was bummed that I didn't see a linen closet, he said, oh, that was probably the locked door at the end of the secondary hallway, I had thought that was a second entry point to the garage, he said no, that was outside. I said I didn't think that would be a linen closet, the guy probably had his guns in there. A little googling found his instagram page with photos of some of his guns. Imagine having photos of your guns on a page anyone can find! :what:
 
It can be really impossible. I have my reloading stuff in lockable tool boxes....think mechanics tool boxes. The safes are out there, the ammo....I bet I have at least 50 "army" boxes of different sizes of ammo. I would bet my 22 stash is over 150 lbs (other rimfire is in there as well) and on wheels under my pinball machine. No way to hide all that stuff.

I have had more issues with other things then gunz. It is not hard to figure out you are a gun nut by walking into your house....signs all over the place, scraps of paper with circles on them and all kinds of holes in them.

Really what I would suggest is think more of kids then the adults. I had more issues with my other "toys" then the gunz. I have pinball machines, RC planes all over the place, cars around the top of the basement....motorcycles in the garage. That stuff you need to worry about.

If you have a good agent (that is so funny....I don't like realestate agents AT ALL) they will likely tour your house and make suggestions.....listen to them. If you have questions ask....if their eyes glass over on the questions fire them (you can do this) and get another agent.
 
I just sold my house 3 weeks ago . I close on 4-5 if the appraisal isn't low . It sold in 1 hour of being on the market . I removed all of my ammo and reloading stuff and put it in storage , along with the clutter stuff , deer mounts and hunting stuff . I left the safe in plain view in the bedroom that is my hunting room . The realtor would call me so I could leave for a showing and she would call when they left . I was a little worried that someone might come back and break into it , but I am home most of the time and I have an alarm system . I was lucky the first person bought it , so that relieved some worry from having a lot of viewers .

My brother just did the same thing a week ago . His house sold in 1 day and he had 10 people look at it in one day . He had his safe in plain view and offered to sell it with the house for $1000 dollars . Two people bided on it and he got $8000 more than he was asking . But his inspection didn't go that well . They want him to replace both heatpumps , 6 windows , small amount of mold in the crawl space and grade the front yard . I told him at least you have an $8000 dollar head start and you own a refrigeration company .
 
We listed out house for sale once when I was laid off for a over a year and unemployment benefits ran out. We have a large wall-in vault under the porch which also functions as a tornado shelter. I boxed everything I could and moved it to a self storage stall. I made a false wall under the dim basement stairwell and concealed my long guns behind it. As it is a difficult area to see with the low overhead beams it was secure enough for my purposes.

House didn't sell and I finally got rehired.

If I decided to sell the house again I will simply box up my reloading presses and small stuff in the mancave and leave the vault door closed. If someone wants a second inspection to look in the vault then I will remove my guns hanging on the wall inside it and cover everything up else with sheets.

I have way too much to stuff to do the u-storage thing again.
 
Personally, I'm making sure we've bought the new house before we list the old one (so we can move anything critical out first). You could also store things with a reliable friend/family member.
 
Another point, I didn’t allow anyone to view my property who didn’t already have a loan pre-approval or cash to buy my place outright. That significantly reduces the risk of undesirables just casing houses to steal from. I also was adamant about no open houses.
 
Maybe a little OT, but I was viewing a house that our daughter and son in law were considering for purchase and noticed a 20 gauge shotgun leaning in the corner behind the front door. Gotta love rural Maine!
 
Before the first potential buyer looked at my house in Commi-fornia, I locked all my guns and ammo under my truck's tonneau cover, and just left it in the garage. Thankfully it was in escrow four days after listing it.
 
I put all the guns away when a contractor of any kind comes over. I haven’t had to hide my press yet but would if extended work was going to be a thing.

My intention with my next house is to convert a closet into a hidden storage space with a bookshelf and hidden release. The gun safe when I get one would reside in there. My house is too small for it now.

If it’s in a basement I’d perhaps have a vault door just closing off one of the rooms with the hidden door instead of a safe.
 
old lady new shooter said:
Not many people here post with their real name though.
Click to expand...
If you think not using your real name is protecting you, you have a lot to learn. There are plenty of websites and programs that are intended to crack your personal information based off things such as a seemingly random screen name. Much like doors and locks, all it really does is keep honest people honest.

With more and more of the overall population becoming more familiar with better technology, this risk increases all the time. More accurately, as time goes on there are more nefarious persons out there who have access and intent.
 
Havok7416 said:
If you think not using your real name is protecting you, you have a lot to learn. There are plenty of websites and programs that are intended to crack your personal information based off things such as a seemingly random screen name. Much like doors and locks, all it really does is keep honest people honest.

With more and more of the overall population becoming more familiar with better technology, this risk increases all the time. More accurately, as time goes on there are more nefarious persons out there who have access and intent.
Click to expand...
It's just like your house, layered security. The more layers, the greater the deterrent, because more layers mean more work.
 
Except in the case of digital information the work is being done by a computer with minimal user input. There are minimal layers on a forum such as this.
 
When we were looking I did notice that every single house we looked at had a safe (or two) or stacked hard cases in the basement/garage.

So I wouldnt be worried in my area that my couple would stand out overmuch.
 
Good Ol' Boy said:
I'm curious of those of you that have gone through the process of selling your house and have a stockpile of firearms and ammo. What did you do, what was your process?

This is open to both folks that have mass safes as well as folks like myself that just rely on exterior and interior locks on doors.

My main concerns are are you there when the showing is happening and are you worried at all that whomever now knows that at minimum you have huge safes in your home?

Any other suggestions?
Click to expand...
You are not supposed to be there when the agent has potential buyers there. Stay out of their way, they will want to look around, open drawers and closets, etc. I have moved many times with a safe and thus had buyers coming through my houses. No problem
My ammo was stored in my garage
 
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