CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR NEW HOME - NOW CHANGE THE LOCKS!

CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR NEW HOME - NOW CHANGE THE LOCKS!

Congratulations you bought a new house.   Chances are if you recently bought a home in Stanislaus County it was either a Short Sale or a Bank Owned home since they make up nearly 70% of the homes sold these days.   There are lots of great deals available right now with either a Stanislaus County Short Sale or a Stanislaus County Bank Owned home. 

There is something you should know about buying a bank owned home, and I think it's kind of important.  The first thing you should do after you buy a bank owned home is CHANGE THE LOCKS !!!  See it's in all capitals and red, that means I think it's really  important.   Why do I think it's so important do you ask?   Hopefully your agent explained why it is important for you to CHANGE THE LOCKS. 

When a bank forecloses on a home one of the first thing they do is change the locks.  Now you might be thinking "if the bank just changed the locks why should I have to change them again?"  Let me explain.  When BigBankInc changes the locks on their homes they insist that they locks are all keyed alike.  I don't just mean every door on a particular house has all the same locks I mean that every door in every house that BigBankInc now owns has the same key!  There may be several houses in the same neighborhood all with the same key. 

Another thing BigBankInc will do is install combination lock boxes.  Of course they use the same lock box combination on all their homes.  The reason they do this is so that various people can access the house while they are trying to sell it.  People like appraisers, painters, plumbers, electricians, carpet installers, carpet cleaners, inspectors, bank employees, real estate agents, house cleaners, carpenters, sheetrockers, HVAC repairmen, landscapers, pool cleaners, and probably a few others I have forgotten about.   Now do you think that there may be a slight chance that one of those keys might end up "lost or missing"?   Unfortunately not everyone that may be using those keys may be honest or trustworthy.  That's just they way things are in the world these days.  Or how easy would it be for someone to make a copy of one of those keys.  Maybe they want to come back later and help themselves to that brand new oven that BigBankInc just installed.   And of course they soon figure out that BigBankInc uses THE SAME KEY ON ALL THEIR HOMES!  So maybe they think that they can come back later after the house is sold and all full of your cool stuff like big screen TV's, computers, furniture, and other valuables.

I tell all of the buyers that I work with that are buying a Stanislaus County Bank Owned home or even a Stanislaus County Short Sale home to CHANGE THE LOCKS!  If your agent didn't tell you that then consider this your warning.  It's pretty cheap insurance in my opinion and pretty easy to do too.  

If you are thinking about buying a Stanislaus County Short Sale or Stanislaus County Bank Owned home and want more information please give me a call at 209-633-2839.  You can also SEARCH FOR STANISLAUS COUNTY HOMES in the privacy of your own home.   I look forward to helping you find your new home!