House Vandalism, Steps and measures

[Randon B.]

This hasn't happened to me but I'm sure it happens often.

Say you get a vacant house under contract, and the seller lives out of city/state.

You get permission to have your partners/ buyers to come by and look at the property, possibly state in the contract being able to put a lock box on the house.

BAM! The house gets broken into, all of the copper is missing and the place is trashed. If I was the seller and I got news from someone that was supposed to be helping me out I would be ticked too.

You can't just pointing your finger at buyers, maybe it was a neighbor that realized the place was vacant and took advantage of the situation, maybe all the new added interest in the property got the wrong peoples attention. 

Especially if your using the internet to broadcast your property where essentially anyone could see it.

What are steps that you would take if this happens? Or steps that you could take to prevent something like this from happening?

Thanks guys!

[George C.]

I make them look not empty. I put cheap mini blinds up, newspaper on the porch, kids toys, bike in front & leave a car in the driveway. I always do this when buying or remodeling, not just for vandals, but for insurance purposes. If your insurance company comes around (and believe me they do) and see the house is empty of 30 days they will either cancel your insurance or charge you for empty structure rate ( which is a lot more money).

I've done this with REO props that I had under contract too, I've changed the locks & taken off the lock boxes, once I knew the deal was solid.

  This might not work in bad areas, but will work in decent areas.

 You could rig up a battery power & timed light / radio inside if there is no power on at the property, all goes to help with the look of occupancy.