Hi everyone,
I just read a story in our local paper that caught my attention. One of the big reasons is because the house it showed on the front page is in the neighborhood where I just gave a quote to stage a vacant new construction.
Apparently in this neighborhood, several vacant new construction homes have been broken into. They have caught the crooks, thank goodness, but I hope it doesn't give the other crooks out there ideas.
This is what happened. A man and a woman in their late 30's, early 40's would go visit the homes on the weekends during open houses. They would look around to see what they wanted and one of them would unlock a window. Then, they would come back with a construction looking truck and go into the house when no one was there. They would open the garage door and park the truck inside the garage and close the garage back up. Then they took items such as: heat pumps, water heaters, stovetops, furniture, accessories, cabinet hardware, and even tools if the construction crew left them behind.
What does your insurance say?? Are you covered if your staged homes get broken into? My insurance agent told me if I stage for a builder to make sure they have builder's risk insurance. If they don't then it would fall onto my insurance and of course cover my belonging that I put in the house. In the case of an older home, the homeowner should have homeowners insurance to cover the stolen goods. Again, if not, my insurance does cover it.
This should also be a lesson for the agents working the open houses. To make sure before leaving that all the windows and doors are locked. These hard times are making people desperate. We can't be too careful.
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