Just an FYI - Your link isn't working.

Eric, yikes! NOW, THAT'S REALLY SCARY. I will say that these times are testing our patience and endurance. Thanks for the heads up! Whoa. Man. Thanks for the post.

Later in the rain~Deb

Very scarey. All my agents are putting do not disturb the occupants when it is a vacant home. Also, I always recommend limiting the hours of access on the box to ones that make sense. it's just awful! Kym

It did say these were model homes to! Which usually means there might be neighborhood security watching the new developments - inside job?!??! Very scarey!

Yup.  I had a house broken into a few months back.  When I found out, I prayed they did not take my favorite vase.  ANYTHING BUT THE VASE!!!

Sure enough - the vase was gone as well as every accessory I had :(

Eric-

I haven't heard of this happening in Houston, but that shows the necessity of carrying insurance.

Interesting, but feeding the idea, here...not sure that's a good idea.

I hate to even think about this. I had one home broken into. They stole the dining table, 4 chairs, some fake food, and towels. Nothing else. I don't know if they were interupted or if that was all they needed or wanted. In my case, someone unlocked one of the windows and came back later to get in.

The thefts in Seattle seem like they are well organized and part of a ring. I hope they catch them and hit them hard legally. This is not what the housing market needs right now.

This is a real concern as before I was hired to stage a 1.1 million dollar home, all the appliances were stolen ($20,000) a major portion of the hardwood had to be replaced and damaged walls repaired and painted.

The idea of having a live in similar to a house sitter when you are away on holidays re the show home concept is a great idea.  The person would need to be carefully vetted, perhaps pay for the utilities and would agree to maintain the home inside and out and be ready to move quickly. The builder is protected and they get to live in a home they could not really afford otherwise---

With our difficult times may be a concept to be implemented!

Cheers, Marilynn Currie from the west coast of BC

Unbelievable! I hope there was good insurance coverage.

Thanks for sharing, this is a major concern for all parties involved.

Very disturbing.  I guess there are people that will steal anything and everything.  They think they can get away with it, and maybe for a while they will, but God sees everything!

Wow.  You just never know what people are going to do.  It's scary.  Thanks for sharing.

WOW!  That's not good at all!  Who is liable for the loss?  I hope not the realtor.

I knew this was just a matter of time...especially with the foreclosures, bad economy, etc.  We have to be properly covered.  I can't stress that enough.  Make sure your insurance covers your inventory off your premise.

I hadn't heard of this happening until now...This is terrible!

Debi

Boy this doesn't surprise me at all.  These are desperate times for some people and thieves will always take advantage.  Betty

I always worried about Open Houses.  I felt like anyone could come in and "case the joint".  That way when they came back they knew exactly which rooms to go to and where every thing was.  Very unsettling story!

While I do not like to hear of these things..and certainly do not like to 'put it out there'...however, it is the reality of our times.  I have not seen staging items stolen yet in our area but I have seen a dramatic increase in ransacked homes which had been foreclosed.  Craigslist is full of people looting their soon-to-be foreclosed on houses....selling anything from toilets to kitchen cabinets as these people gut the property of all things of sellable value.  My are leads the nation in foreclosures with a 9 times above average rate....it certainly is concerning indeed!  Regards-Kathleen G

It's lucky that the copper plumbing wasn't stolen too.

This goes to show that the agents must change the lockbox code OFTEN.

How many agents use the same lock box code for every house and never change it.

I changed my codes every 10 days or so.

This is a huge concern.  With the new electronic lock boxes isn't the realtor notified as to who has accessed the property? 

Eric ~ Thank you for sharing this info with us. Any thing can happen that is why we have insurance. I have photos of everything that goes in a home when it is staged. I have an inventory list with prices of all the items and the client signs it upon receiving it.

How these theives are getting out of the condos with microwaves and oven ranges without anyone spotting them is hard to understand.  I guess they must be going late at night while everyone is sleeping!  What a shame that someone has to resort to such a lifestyle as this.  It's a matter of time before they find out who did this...and then all of the fun and games will be over for them. 

This is nothing by comparison, but these kind of creeped me out at first.  I  was working on this house and started to take photos, I didn't even notice the guy until I was reviewing the pictures after I got home. I've cropped these so you can see what I'm talking about.

Notice the guy in the blue shirt, out the window.

Here he is again in the second shot.

Here it looks like he's hiding in the corner.  What do you think?

The only protection is to make sure you have solid, signed contracts with the owner of the property and make sure you have insurance that covers your inventory.    I wouldn't be surprised if some of these thefts were inside jobs.  It's a shame, really.

We stage a lot of homes and having inventory stolen is going to happen. As our insurance agent says, its not a matter of IF it will happen its WHEN it will happen. We have solid policies that cover a portion of inventory at a time (say $50-100k). Its not likely ALL of your inventory will get stolen at one time. You might loose one house, have a truck crash or a storage unit burn down but not all at the sale time. We recently had a huge home in Paradise Valley ransacked. People pulled up a truck and loaded everything up.

An incredible story, and veryone in real estate should view this video.  The video raises a lot of great points, owner liabilty, safety, insurance etc...

Eric,

The video is disturbing although, thankfully, we have not had much of that problem yet here in Gwinnett County.  I have staged several vacants in the area. As far as your question regarding how things are insured.  The appliances would have needed to be insured through the builder, and as far as the furnishings provided by the stager, the staging company would have had insurance on all of their items.  This is one reason you should always use a stager who owns and runs their company like a business and not just a friend or neighbor who has a flair for design.