Beware a Night Showing, There May be Something Lurking in the Shadows

                Showing a home during Halloween can be an interesting experience.  There are often pop up props, ghoulish gags, and festive frights in every corner of a home.  Pumpkins adorning the front of the walkways that have been freshly carved, cobwebs hanging from every surface and a light layer of artificial fog seem commonplace in October.  With the days beginning to get shorter in anticipation of daylight savings time, showings that take place at night can be a little spooky. 

                If you have any for sale listings or homes in your Aurora property management portfolio with rooms without lights you will need to place them there as soon as you can.  It is not uncommon for rooms to not have overhead can lights, especially in a lot of the homes we manage that were built in the 90’s.  For homes with people still living there, this is usually taken care of.  For vacant or transitioning for moving homes, you will want to add some light sources so that your clients or prospects do not get frightened. 

                There was a showing done by one our agents not too long ago, where he had some rental prospects touring a home where the previous renter had almost moved completely out.  The only thing left behind were Halloween decorations.  Well the prospects went up to one of the bedrooms and upon realizing that there were no overhead lights, they pulled out their phones and used the flashlight.  What sight greeted them spooked them to the core and sent them running out of the house.  Bodies strewn about, disfigured faces discarded in piles, limbs of all sorts, in their own seemingly random arrangements.  Now a much closer and longer look would have revealed how laughably fake these Halloween decorations were.  But that initial fear during this time of the year can be the tipping point for leaving.  So be sure to keep care of any listings you may have with dark blind spots.  Regardless of the possibility of a grisly scene unfolding, it is courteous to have the space well lit, to avoid any misinterpreting and to fully convey the positive aspects of the home. 

                 Blue Olive Properties has seen several clever Halloween decorations on the homes in our Aurora property management.  We have always supplied floor lamps for any vacancies without canned lights since the above incident.