Home Sellers: Protect Your Valuables Before Hosting an Open House

• October 5th 2009

by Will Smith

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Northern Virginia Association of Realtors (NVAR) has alerted its membership to a number of thefts that have occurred at recent weekend open houses. Last month, an open house theft was reported in Potomac, Maryland. Then yesterday there were reports of stolen jewelry from multiple open houses in Alexandria. This was the description posted to the NVAR website:

Possible suspects could be a father and son. The elder is in his early 50s, the son in his mid-20s. Both are white, have brown hair, and are about 5’ 9”. The father claims to be from Columbia, Maryland, and wants to be closer to Metro.

The younger house hunter wandered upstairs as the agent was talking to the father. The father called upstairs to his son and said, “Make sure you take a picture of the hall — you know how important the hall is to me.”

They could be driving a small silver sedan or an older model black Land Rover. They did not park in front of the house.

Separately, UrbanTurf visited a condo development yesterday and was told that the hanging art had to be screwed into the walls because “it has a tendency to walk off.”

Stories like these should remind home sellers to be extra cautious when preparing for an open house. Any valuables that are small enough to fit in a pocket — jewelry, iPods, etc. — should probably be locked up or put away altogether.

• Update — The Washington Post is reporting that two men have been arrested in the string of open house robberies.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.production.logicbrush.com/articles/blog/home_sellers_protect_your_valuables_before_hosting_an_open_house/1381.