Open house safety: a checklist for agents working alone

Most open houses are uneventful, which is why the safety routine slips. After twenty quiet Sundays, nobody texts the office, the sign-in sheet sits unused, and the agent follows a visitor down to an unfinished basement to point out the furnace. A routine you run every time takes about fifteen minutes. Here it is, before, during and after.

Before you leave the office

• •Tell one person your schedule. Send a colleague or someone at home the address, the start and end times, and when you expect to leave. One named person beats a group chat where everyone assumes someone else is watching.
• •Set check-in times. A text at the start, one partway through and one when you’ve driven away. Agree in advance what happens when one is missed.
• •Agree on a code phrase. An ordinary sentence, such as asking about “the blue file,” that means “call me back in five minutes and come if I don’t answer.”
• •Charge your phone. Bring a battery pack, and share your location with your check-in person for the afternoon if you’re comfortable with it.
• •Travel light. Lock your bag in the trunk and carry your phone and keys.

Arriving and scouting the house

Arrive twenty minutes early, before the signs go up, and walk the whole property alone with the lights on.

• •Park so you can’t be blocked. Leave the driveway free and park on the street facing out. Know which way you’d drive off.
• •Find every exit. Front door, back door, patio slider, garage door. Unlock the ones you might need and check that they open. A slider with a bar in the track stays shut until the bar is out.
• •Check every room and level. Make sure the house is empty before anyone arrives.
• •Note the dead ends. Basements with one stair, attics, garages, walk-in closets and back rooms with one door. These are the rooms visitors see on their own.
• •Check cell signal. Some basements have none.
• •Pick your spot. Set up near the main entrance with a clear line to the door. A table at the back of the house puts every visitor between you and the way out.

Securing the seller’s valuables and medications

Start with the seller a day or two ahead. Give them a short list in writing, then check it with them when you arrive.

• •Prescription and over-the-counter medications, from bathroom cabinets, kitchen drawers and bedside tables.
• •Jewellery, cash, watches and small electronics.
• •Spare house and car keys, and garage door openers.
• •Mail, bank and tax papers, passports, and anything with an account number or a signature.
• •Firearms: ask the seller to lock them away or take them out of the house for the day.
• •Photos and fridge calendars that show family names, schools or schedules.

If the seller has security cameras, check your brokerage’s policy on recording at open houses before the day.

Sign in every visitor

A sign-in is your record of who was in the house. Ask every adult who comes through the door to sign in, the same way every time, with a name and a way to reach them. As the standard step at the door, it singles nobody out. If someone declines, follow your brokerage’s policy; some agents ask the visitor to wait until they can show them through.

A sign-in collects personal information. Tell visitors why you’re asking, keep the list where the next visitor can’t read it, and follow your brokerage’s privacy policy for how it’s stored and used.

During the open house

• •Stay between visitors and the exit. Stand in the doorway and let the visitor walk into the room. You keep a way out, and they get to look in peace.
• •Stay out of dead ends. Point the way to the basement, attic and garage and answer questions from the top of the stairs.
• •Keep the front door in view. Know who has come in and who has left.
• •Keep your phone on you. In your hand or pocket. A phone on the counter across the room is no help.
• •Watch what people do. The signals are behaviour: lingering after everyone else has gone, opening drawers, asking whether you’re alone or when you close, or coming back after a walk around the block. Respond to the behaviour, the same way whoever it is.
• •Use your check-in partner. If something feels off, make the call with your code phrase, or step outside to make it. You can always leave.

Closing up alone

The last half hour is when you’re most likely to be alone with one visitor.

• •Bring the signs in a few minutes early so no one new arrives as you lock up.
• •If a visitor is still there, tell them you’re wrapping up and walk them to the door before your walk-through.
• •Walk through room by room with the front door in view, ending at the exit.
• •Lock what you opened, turn off the lights, and check that the seller’s put-away spots are as they left them.
• •Don’t lock up with a visitor still inside who says they’ll “just be a minute.” Wait outside until they leave.
• •Walk to your car with your keys in hand and lock the doors once you’re in.

Check out

Text your check-in person once you’ve driven away. Then send the seller a short note: the house is locked, how many visitors came, and anything to check, such as a cabinet that was opened. If anything concerned you, write it down that day and tell your broker of record.

Frequently asked questions

How Listing Launchpad handles open house sign-in and follow-up

Listing Launchpad was built to run a listing from one workspace, open houses included. It covers the parts of this routine that depend on a record and a reminder.

• •Signing in every visitor: open the kiosk on a tablet at the door. It asks every visitor the same questions in the same order, with name, email and phone required. Visitors who’d rather not touch a shared tablet scan the QR poster and sign in on their own phone.
• •Keeping the list private: the kiosk clears itself after each sign-in and after two minutes untouched, so the next visitor never sees the last one’s details. Each sign-in is saved as a lead on the listing.
• •Telling someone your schedule: schedule the open house once and it’s on the listing’s timeline and your calendar feed, so the times you send your check-in person match your calendar.
• •The seller’s valuables and medications: the day before each open house, a reminder goes to your sellers in wording you control. Add your put-away list once and every open house carries it.
• •Checking out with the seller: after the open house, a debrief email gives you and your sellers the turnout.

The kiosk, the QR sign-in and the leads it creates are on every plan, Free included, with a small Listing Launchpad credit on the page. The day-before seller reminder and the debrief are email automations on Pro and Studio, which also add your branding to the kiosk. You can try Pro free for 14 days from inside any listing.