Prevent Your Property from Being Vandalized While Flipping it

If you're a real estate investor, such as a house flipper or a wholesaler, there will be long stretches of time when your property is left unattended. Even if the house is occupied during the daytime by the contractors who are rehabbing the house, the home is unprotected at night. To prevent your house from being damaged or even destroyed, make sure you take the proper measures and complete the following steps.

Steps

Being Vigilant

  1. Understand the threat. Houses that are waiting to be sold are prime targets for vandalism as vandals don't target occupied homes but rather those that are currently abandoned. Vandals will often destroy properties by breaking windows, busting holes in walls, and spray painting everything in sight. The professionals will even strip the copper piping and sell it for cash. Most noteworthy, perhaps, is the fact that most insurance policies to not cover vandalism after the first month that a property is abandoned or not lived in.

Improving the Barriers

  1. Replace the locks. This may seem obvious, but many people fail to change the existing locks after purchasing. The house is at a greater risk if the property was purchased because of foreclosure, or from a short sale or an REO property. The previous homeowners might be disgruntled because they lost possession of their house or were forced to sell. If that is the case, they might take it out on the person who is trying to profit from their loss.
    • If you don't know how to replace locks yourself, have a professional locksmith come and do this for you. The money spent will be repaid by the much reduced chances of someone letting themselves back into the property.
  2. Barricade any doors and windows that do not lock. Sometimes, doors and windows do not have locks, especially for entrances to storage parts of the house, garage or a shed. In this case, it is wise to board up such doors or barricade them with furniture. If you've just installed new windows or a door trip however, you might not want to drive nails into them.

Making the House Seem Lived In

  1. Keep the lights on. Vandals do not generally hit houses that have people living in them. Therefore, it is a good idea to make the house appear to be occupied. By leaving the lights on inside, or at the very least outside the house, you can prevent people from breaking in.
    • If you're worried about the cost of the electricity bill, you could install motion sensor lights that only turn on when someone approaches the house.
    • If it's the holiday season, consider leaving some festive lights out on a timer, to have them showing at night. A few decorations in the front yard will add to the theme.
  2. Put drapes or sheets over the windows. Even if you leave the lights on, smart vandals are going to figure out the trick when they look in the windows and see that the inside is empty. To avoid this, buy some cheap drapes, or tape up some bedsheets to cover the windows. The element of mystery will scare away potential intruders.
    • If you have spare furniture, position it so that it can be seen if someone were to peer in through particular angles.
  3. Keep the garden maintained. Don't allow lawns to overgrow and keep hedges, plants and overhanging branches trimmed. Leave a few inexpensive items about to make it seem that the garden and yard are being tended, such as a watering can, a hose and an old wheelbarrow.
    • If you can't keep the garden tidy yourself, have a gardener call once a week to do this for you.
    • Keep flowering plants near the front door. Replace when they die off with cheap new ones. This gives the impression of someone living there and caring for plants.
    • Put in a meager vegetable plot to make it appear as if someone is tending to gardening. Add irrigation to keep it going while nobody tends to it much and do an occasional weed.

Seeking Additional Help

  1. Ask neighbors to keep a watch. This may not always be a practical thing to try to do but where your neighbors seem engaged in maintaining the community and keeping an eye out for vandalism, ask for their help. Give them your phone number and email contact so that they can let you know if something untoward is happening. Ask them to check the property as regularly as is convenient for them.
    • Buy your neighbors a calling card to reduce the costs of contacting you. Or give them something nice to say thank you for their help; this could even be an offer of your time to do some gardening or fence maintenance in return for their vigilance.
  2. Ask the police for extra patrolling. You could ask the police for assistance, especially if you live in a neighborhood known for high property crime and damage. The officers will often be more than happy to help you out, as newly fixed up houses means neighborhood improvement and less crime for them to deal with.
  3. Pay for private security patrol. It may be extra money but if you have particular concerns about the possibility of vandalism, it will be money well spent to protect the property.
  4. Visit often. Train yourself to notice anything unusual or changed about the property that hasn't anything to do with the renovations. By being constantly vigilant, you'll have a greater chance of keeping the property free of unwanted intruders.

Tips

  • Put the garbage bin out now and then and bring it back in in a timely fashion. This can help to make it seem that someone is living on the property.
  • You might even consider letting your kids play, or holding family functions, in your backyard to convince the neighborhood that there are people living in your house. After all, it is your property even if you are flipping it.
  • Have a spare car? Perhaps park it in the driveway to give the impression that someone is at home. Of course, the usefulness of this will depend on the whether there is any possibility of the car getting vandalized too!
  • Have mail stopped and/or collected. Put a "No Advertising Material" sign on the mailbox to prevent a build-up of junk mail that can alert vandals to no-one being at home.

Warnings

  • Don't destroy your new window or door trim by nailing or screwing two-by-fours into them. Instead, try one of the other techniques.

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