When copper theft is trending in your neck of the woods, photographs on real estate listings provide copper thieves with information about the best points of entry into your basement where their goldmine of copper awaits. If you are closing on your house but do not currently live there, and copper thievery is trending in your area, here are some very low cost common sense ways for the typically impatient and non-tech savvy house flipper-seller (and also homeowner-seller) to protect their investment from being sabotaged by copper thieves:
1.) Change up the lights you leave on. A pretty generic solution is to leave the lights on. Okay, yeah. But go back everyday and change up the lights you have on, so the copper thieves do not figure it out that it is always the same lights on. Copper thieves are probably not all that bright but if they drive by each night to scope it out and see the same lights on they might catch on and then get a little more daring, start looking for cars in the driveway, activity inside the house, etc.
2.) Shut the water main off. When the Copper thief steals the copper they typically do not have the decency to first shut off the water main and what happens is they flood your entire basement. This is what makes the copper thief such a scourge. I know of one house that was pending sale. After the copper thieves flooded the basement, that killed the deal. Stolen copper can be re-piped. That costs money but not tons. However, once your basement is flooded that's big problems, especially when everything gets moldy.
3.) Post photos wisely. Do not let your realtor post any photos of your copper piping on any MLS sites. The prototypical copper thief isn't your grandparent's criminal who used their training in the infantry to pull off daring heists that involved parachuting out of an airplane with 500 grand in cash but the new style criminal fiending for their next fix whose idea of a heist is changing the barcodes on a plug-in fan at Walmart. Do not entice this breed of criminal with photos of your copper piping because you want to highlight the "bones of the house". Three houses I know of hit by copper thieves had one thing in common: the photographs on their listings contained pictures of copper piping.
4.) Leave your car in the driveway. Here, this tactic involves incurring some expenses on ubers, but if the logistics work and you can cut down on the number of personal trips in order to protect your investment until the deal goes through the modus operandi of copper thieves will almost certainly not permit them to enter a house which has a car in the driveway. Alternatively, if you want to incur higher costs you can rent a car and leave it there, but to me, like installing cameras and alarm systems, that's letting the copper thieves get the best of you because you're really now digging deep into your pockets. They're not worth it.
5.) Remove realtor signs when your house is under contract for sale. Realtors love to show off how they sold a house by highlighting it on their realtor signs. "Pending" "Sold" This is just pointless because once the house is under contract it is under contract and if you do the kind of deal that I like to do which involves giving a little off in exchange for cash purchase and waiver of inspections/seller's disclosures to speed the closing process up and lock it in, there is absolutely no reason to keep the realtor sign up when copper theft is trending in your city/town/neighborhood/locale. It's stupid. If your realtor has any brains he or she will have no problem with this.
6.) Do not booby-trap your house with mechanical spring guns, boards with nails sticking out at the foot of windows or stuff like that. This is illegal to do in the United States and will expose you to liability in the event that a Copper Thief is maimed or killed or worse somebody else like your realtor whose just going there one day to check up on things. The last thing you want to have to do is go to jail on top of fork over hundreds of thousands of dollars to a Copper Thief because they were maimed trying to steal your copper pipes.
7.) Guard your premises. This is not hanging out for pleasure but actively remaining on the premises from peak copper thief hours of 11:00 p.m. until 4 a.m. in the morning. The purpose is not just to deter copper thieves but to actually catch them if possible. Be in a position where you will see them from a good distance and then it is your choice to how you wish to handle the situation. Nonetheless, my recommendation is to have a baseball bat handy just in case, on the off-chance the situation requires engagement (if you are not comfortable with engagement and it is clear they have nefarious intent call the police). Copper thieves will run before they engage. Remember, they make peanuts on the copper piping they steal and scrap. Copper thieves do not carry guns but do come equipped with cutting instruments. If you get them caught that's great, if not and they run away which of course they will that's okay too. Given that these thieves target empty houses, being present at your normally vacant property is the boring yet bulletproof strategy for protecting your investment but taxes you on time and labor so I only recommend undertaking this tactic when the deal is pending and you are in the final week before closing.
8.) Do not hire residential security. Residential security is a rip-off. They charge ridiculous money and spending it is letting the copper thieves get the best of you because you're really now digging deep into your pockets. Copper thieves are not worth it.
1.) Change up the lights you leave on. A pretty generic solution is to leave the lights on. Okay, yeah. But go back everyday and change up the lights you have on, so the copper thieves do not figure it out that it is always the same lights on. Copper thieves are probably not all that bright but if they drive by each night to scope it out and see the same lights on they might catch on and then get a little more daring, start looking for cars in the driveway, activity inside the house, etc.
2.) Shut the water main off. When the Copper thief steals the copper they typically do not have the decency to first shut off the water main and what happens is they flood your entire basement. This is what makes the copper thief such a scourge. I know of one house that was pending sale. After the copper thieves flooded the basement, that killed the deal. Stolen copper can be re-piped. That costs money but not tons. However, once your basement is flooded that's big problems, especially when everything gets moldy.
3.) Post photos wisely. Do not let your realtor post any photos of your copper piping on any MLS sites. The prototypical copper thief isn't your grandparent's criminal who used their training in the infantry to pull off daring heists that involved parachuting out of an airplane with 500 grand in cash but the new style criminal fiending for their next fix whose idea of a heist is changing the barcodes on a plug-in fan at Walmart. Do not entice this breed of criminal with photos of your copper piping because you want to highlight the "bones of the house". Three houses I know of hit by copper thieves had one thing in common: the photographs on their listings contained pictures of copper piping.
4.) Leave your car in the driveway. Here, this tactic involves incurring some expenses on ubers, but if the logistics work and you can cut down on the number of personal trips in order to protect your investment until the deal goes through the modus operandi of copper thieves will almost certainly not permit them to enter a house which has a car in the driveway. Alternatively, if you want to incur higher costs you can rent a car and leave it there, but to me, like installing cameras and alarm systems, that's letting the copper thieves get the best of you because you're really now digging deep into your pockets. They're not worth it.
5.) Remove realtor signs when your house is under contract for sale. Realtors love to show off how they sold a house by highlighting it on their realtor signs. "Pending" "Sold" This is just pointless because once the house is under contract it is under contract and if you do the kind of deal that I like to do which involves giving a little off in exchange for cash purchase and waiver of inspections/seller's disclosures to speed the closing process up and lock it in, there is absolutely no reason to keep the realtor sign up when copper theft is trending in your city/town/neighborhood/locale. It's stupid. If your realtor has any brains he or she will have no problem with this.
6.) Do not booby-trap your house with mechanical spring guns, boards with nails sticking out at the foot of windows or stuff like that. This is illegal to do in the United States and will expose you to liability in the event that a Copper Thief is maimed or killed or worse somebody else like your realtor whose just going there one day to check up on things. The last thing you want to have to do is go to jail on top of fork over hundreds of thousands of dollars to a Copper Thief because they were maimed trying to steal your copper pipes.
7.) Guard your premises. This is not hanging out for pleasure but actively remaining on the premises from peak copper thief hours of 11:00 p.m. until 4 a.m. in the morning. The purpose is not just to deter copper thieves but to actually catch them if possible. Be in a position where you will see them from a good distance and then it is your choice to how you wish to handle the situation. Nonetheless, my recommendation is to have a baseball bat handy just in case, on the off-chance the situation requires engagement (if you are not comfortable with engagement and it is clear they have nefarious intent call the police). Copper thieves will run before they engage. Remember, they make peanuts on the copper piping they steal and scrap. Copper thieves do not carry guns but do come equipped with cutting instruments. If you get them caught that's great, if not and they run away which of course they will that's okay too. Given that these thieves target empty houses, being present at your normally vacant property is the boring yet bulletproof strategy for protecting your investment but taxes you on time and labor so I only recommend undertaking this tactic when the deal is pending and you are in the final week before closing.
8.) Do not hire residential security. Residential security is a rip-off. They charge ridiculous money and spending it is letting the copper thieves get the best of you because you're really now digging deep into your pockets. Copper thieves are not worth it.
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