Open Houses

As a realtor (my real job) I take clients who are potential buyers into houses all the time. I also, at the behest of the customer usually, hold open houses.

If you, or anyone you know, is trying to sell their home, and they're going to have a parade of strangers walking through, let them know this tip.

If they have kids, remove any reference to them in the house. A case I'm aware of involves a paedophile who got a slew of information from being inside a home. He was able to glean the age of the child, their hobbies, their names and the names of their parents etc.

Put yourself in the child's shoes a few weeks later. Someone rolls up in a car, knows their name, talks to them about their hobbies, describes their house and their bedroom, uses the parent's names and then says they sent him to pick them up...it would have to be a well trained child to not fall for the ruse.

It's a pain to be sure but, you're going to have to pack all their stuff anyway once the house is sold, so you may as well do it in advance of potential buyers walking through and avoid any trouble.

Self protection is all about avoidance after all and not closing the gate after the horse has bolted.