Concerns about viewings

NibblyPig

First time selling my house, I've looked at a few properties myself. In every instance, the estate agents often left me to wander around the house on my own.
I have concerns that the same will happen when people come to view my house. It seems like if you wanted to steal stuff it would be perfect opportunity, just book yourself in for as many viewings as you can find and turn up with a bag and pinch any small items that are lying around.
I am somewhat paranoid about strangers having free roam of my house for this reason. I have all kinds of small electronics and stuff in drawers.
Also, is it good or bad to be home when people view? I kinda wonder if I should clear out for the day, but at the same time I can also answer questions viewers might have.
Am I being irrational? Any tips?

seradane

If you're really concerned, maybe lock any small valuables away prior to viewings. But beyond that, there's not a whole lot you can do. Definitely don't be in and follow them around the house, that will put any sane buyer off!

Honestly if you want to sell your house, you're just going to have to suppress the paranoia and let people view it.

davidmcn

If you're concerned about any portable valuable items, then (obviously) don't leave them lying around. It can't be that difficult, can it?

Retired_Mortgage_Adviser

EAs are unlikely to keep an eagle eye on the viewers throughout the whole viewing. If you have expensive stuff lying around, you are not being paranoid at all.

In your place I would just keep anything worth stealing under lock and key.

Of course you still still get klepto viewers who pinch some of your silverware, slip a book into their bag, etc for the sake of nicking something, but there's only so much you can do besides follow them around everywhere which would definitely put off some people.

As a buyer, I prefer having access to the actual vendor (to increase the likelihood of getting straight answers to some fundamental questions) but would not appreciate being followed around.

Rural_Puppy

Clear out anything of value and store it under lock and key. You cannot realistically watch over viewers, so there is an element of trust required. However it would be prudent to only have items on display that you would not cry over if they were damaged or went missing. 

Windofchange

So, from having recently viewed a load of houses, and made an offer on one, I can categorically say the second most annoying thing is an estate agent following you around and repeating that they have had a lot of interest and you'd better be quick as they've had two offers already today. Slightly above this on my list of annoyance would be if the seller was present. What I wanted was to get a feel for the place as if I lived there. This is impossible if you have a shadow watching your every move. The other thing is that nobody trusts estate agents further than we could throw them. You can't have an open chat if you are being followed - for instance discussing whether to do some building work or whether the front room is too small. You feel as if you have to watch every word that comes out of your mouth as it is all information that the agent will use to assess how much money they can get out of you. The worst viewing we went to was with this young lad who was a metre behind us the whole way round, and kept chiming in with his ideas about what we could do. Of all the houses we viewed, the owners were never present. 

If you have any small valuables such as diamond rings and the such, lock them or hide them away. It will be patently obvious to an estate agent if your viewers walk out the house with a 65 inch HD TV up their jumpers. I guess it does feel like an invasion of privacy for you as a seller, but speaking from personal experience, I never had a rifle through any drawers, or did anything other than have a good look around. I would say from a thief's point of view, there are probably more elegant ways of robbing a house. You probably don't want an estate agent seeing your face for 20 mins for starters, and I would imagine the game would be up pretty quickly after you'd done that to one or two houses. I did actually at one of our second viewings joke with the agent that we aren't trying to rob the place, and he said in 20 years of doing this that had never happened. 

AdrianC

Simple answer: Don't leave valuables lying around.

When we sold our old place, we did have a theft on a viewing. A tiny rubber duck from the edge of the bath... Mild annoyance massively outweighed by sheer amusement.

pinkteapot

I've sold several houses and always conducted viewings myself. I've shown people round, then let them have a second wander round by themselves (it's impossible to view properly with a vendor/EA hovering). As others have said, don't have valuables (e.g. jewellery/cash) out on display. However, I imagine thefts on viewings are exceptionally rare.

Thieves/burglars don't generally want their face seen and that's why they aim to break in when you're not home. Even if they gave a fake name to the EA, you'd be able to give a pretty clear description to the police, and if they took stuff from multiple houses it'd be fairly obvious it was them.

[Deleted User]

I went to view a flat as a buy to let. The tenant literally had watches, Jewellery and Ipad left on surfaces. He wasn't there, the agent was and a dishonest viewer could easily have stolen stuff !
Id defo lock small stuff away 

NibblyPig

Thanks for the responses it's appreciated. It's not really possible to lock everything away, I don't have a house full of safes and I have a lot of stuff that could be nicked, e.g. echo dots, cameras, computer equipment, power banks, phones etc.
I will see if I can bag it up and stash it so nothing can be grabbed without rummaging around. My house has very little storage, there is no loft or spare cupboard I can chuck stuff in, otherwise I'd hide it all away!

I'll clear out and leave the estate agent to it and I'll take anything super valuable with me, and just try to check afterwards that nothing was taken. Thanks.

davidmcn

Surely the things which are actually portable can be chucked into a storage box or similar?