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Keeping things secure at an unoccupied investment home is top priority for savvy investors.

One of the most common mistakes new real estate investors make is buying property in an unknown area and failing to protect it against thieves and vandals during renovation or times of vacancy. Believe it or not, in many places the neighbors wait for an investor to begin a rehab project so they can spring into action and gut the property from the inside out. This article presents some simple tips to properly secure your dwellings and in turn, these tips will save you thousands of dollars in man hours of re-construction and property damage.

Never underestimate the importance of securing an unoccupied house. Though securing a home is unnecessary in good suburban areas, it is considered vital in many blue collar and urban areas. In many neighborhoods, new items installed in a home being rehabbed are gone by the next working day. There is a huge underground market within many urban neighborhoods for stolen furnaces, hot water tanks, copper pipes, copper wires, fuse boxes, kitchen sinks, cabinetry, toilets, light fixtures, vanities and flooring. Even aluminum siding, doors and windows get swiped in some of the roughest areas. Detroit, Michigan is notorious for its blight, high crime rates, shrinking police force…and stripped vacant houses. Talented investors who rehab homes in Detroit, or in any city for that matter, would quickly be out of business if they didn’t have several solutions for vandals and thieves.

Live-ins and deterrents

One solution that many rehab investors exercise is to have their property renovation crew live in their house while it is being worked on. Home inhabitants almost always stop thieves; though in very blighted areas, neighbors wait until the inhabitants leave to swipe a piece of siding or a steel door off a house. If you choose to use this solution, make sure at least one person in your rehab crew is always home. Many investors have told us that putting a hungry pit bull inside their vacant house while it is unoccupied works well. One investor we spoke with prefers not to own a dog, but keeps a radio and a TV set on at all times to deter thieves. The downside to these property securing vehicles is that they require ongoing expenses such as utilities to power electronic devices or food, as in the case of a watchdog. The cheapest deterrent that has still produced excellent results for many urban investors involves fixing several laminated signs to unoccupied properties that say: “Property is under 24 hour video surveillance”. Most thieves and vandals opt not to push their luck after seeing such a warning sign.

Board-ups

A good and cost effective method to keep thieves and vandals out of your investment home is to board up the house. Typically, investors use a form of plywood known as Oriented Strand Board (OSB for short). Each 4’ x 8’ sheet ranges in price from about $9.50 to $20 depending on thickness. OSB usually covers 1.5 – 2 windows per sheet and requires a circular saw, a power drill/screwdriver and self-tapping wood screws to complete the project. This form of securing a home can easily be done yourself, or if you like to play a more passive role in your investment activities, your rehab crew can complete the project in a matter of hours usually for $100 in labor. It is a wise idea, when boarding up a home, to use long (2 inches or greater) self tapping wood screws that have a star shaped pattern in the head. The people who are industrious enough to rob your rehab project blind are the same people who can’t produce $50 to buy a cordless drill along with square or star shaped bits. Many investors will only board up the first floor of an unoccupied house, but in rougher areas (where you probably shouldn’t be buying a home in the first place) it is wise to board up every window. Boarding a house up from the inside is your best bet as thieves and vandals cannot access the screw heads and are forced to work really hard to pry the boards off. Some investors prefer to board up a house from the outside and some even go the extra mile and board up from the inside and the outside. It all depends on the neighborhood the home is in and the level of security that is preferred. One downside to using OSB to board up a house is that light and air are blocked out, forcing you or your rehab contractors to remove the boards for property showings and ongoing renovations.

 Property securing vendors

Property security companies that use a heavy gauge steel which bolts over windows and doors are becoming more popular. This method of securing a property works excellent and allows light and air to penetrate the interior of the home or building via pre-drilled homes in the surface of the steel. You may have seen this product being used on vacant schools, commercial buildings and foreclosed, bank-owned homes. Professional service technicians install this product but the downside is that it is less cost effective than OSB. Steel board-ups require a rental fee based on location and vendor as long as the product is in use.

 Alarm systems

Alarm systems are best used as an addition to other forms of property security. Like steel board ups, alarm systems require an installation fee and an ongoing service or rental fee. The downside to alarm systems is that in many areas, thieves know how much time it takes for police to arrive as the result of a tripped alarm. This gives them just enough time to swipe a hot water tank or a furnace before police arrive.

 This could all be avoided

Perhaps the best tip for any real estate investor is to only buy property in familiar areas with good police forces, low crime rates and near zero blight. A general rule of thumb is to only buy homes in areas that youwould personally live in. Remember, if you wouldn’t want to live there, then why would anyone else? Homes in bad areas get trashed and robbed. If you must follow the advice of zero down real estate courses or get rich quick investment books/seminars and randomly buy homes in any area, then there are a couple of rules you can follow to avoid tipping off thieves and vandals:

• One day for the dumpster and that’s it. A dumpster left at a rehab project for extended periods is like hanging a sign on the home that says: prime target with new items inside.
• Leave “new” boxes inside. As soon as the neighbors see furnace and hot water tank boxes, they’re ready to pounce.

Hopefully these tips will save you from the headaches most investors face as a result of not outfoxing thieves and vandals.