Free coupon codes at http://homes-coupons.blogspot.com/
Copyright New York Times Company Apr 13, 2009
The Sunday open house is a sure sign of spring, a seasonal ritual in which marble-countered kitchens, light-filled master suites, spectacular rear gardens and closets galore are decorated to perfection to draw buyers.
It is a common ploy here and elsewhere to have professional decorators "stage" unoccupied homes that are on the market with borrowed furnishings and appointments to help fetch top dollar, especially now that real estate sales have wilted like a week-old flower arrangement.
But along with fragrant jasmine and wisteria in bloom, there is caution in the air here. The same painstaking efforts to attract buyers have also attracted thieves.
An unusual wave of burglaries has hit unoccupied houses for sale in this affluent 1.8-square-mile bedroom community in the hills east of Oakland, and it is testing the forced cheerfulness of real estate agents who are already reeling. Last weekend, two staged houses were burglarized in nearby Orinda, a wealthy suburb, robbed in the morning hours before planned afternoon open houses.
"It's brazen," said D. J. Grubb, the president of the Grubb Company, a real estate agency based in Oakland. "These are highly aesthetic crimes. The thief seems to be someone with very good taste, somebody who knows that mauve is out."
In Piedmont, the discriminating criminals have made off with bath linens, dressers, upholstered chairs and sofas, table lamps, mirrors and end tables (not to mention the flat-screen televisions). In perhaps the most perplexing incident, the perpetrators stole high-end bed linens, a duvet cover and a metal bed frame from a master bedroom -- but left the matching dust ruffle.
"They were clearly interrupted," said Martha Holstlaw, an agent with Pacific Union, another real estate firm.
Last month, the Police Department in Indio, in Southern California, arrested three people accused of breaking into about a dozen houses for sale in Indio, Indian Wells, Palm Desert and Rancho Mirage. The police recovered about $250,000 worth of stolen goods, including televisions, jewelry, artwork and golf clubs.
"Property crimes are going up in the bad economy," said Benjamin Guitron, the public information officer for the department.
A spate of 13 crimes also took place this year in Kent, Wash., between Seattle and Tacoma, in which two people are awaiting trial on charges of trafficking in stolen property, said Larry Meyer, a detective with the Seattle Police Department.
Marti Reeder, a real estate agent in Kent who had a client lose a diamond tennis bracelet, said: "Their racket was going into open houses. You want buyers to get a feeling for the house. But this was very creepy and invasive."
Although the modus operandi has not been uniform, the five Piedmont houses burglarized so far showed no signs of forced entry, said George Phifer, a detective with the Piedmont Police Department. In two instances, Detective Phifer said, the thieves appeared to have cased the homes during open houses and surreptitiously unlocked a window for future access. The other crimes involved the use of cutting tools to remove lockboxes on the doors.
"Notice the nice new brass hardware," said Sandi Klemmer, an agent with Pacific Union, showing off the front door of a 1950s contemporary home whose door handle had been removed by thieves to get the key out of the lockbox.
The airy home she was showing -- at a reduced price of $975,000 -- still exhibited the tell-tale signs of staging. To create an idealized decor in an unoccupied house, stagers tend to use new furniture and appliances, without the slightest flaw, and have a penchant for accessories like fake hors d'oeuvres and fantasy shopping lists ("Pick up Champagne, French tulips and cream puffs").
Bonnie Pearson, a stager based in Emeryville, estimates that she lost $11,000 worth of furniture and accessories in two Piedmont robberies, Ms. Klemmer's listing among them. Included in the designer booty were silk apricot throw pillows, a damask bedspread, two paisley linen armchairs and a pedestal dining table with upholstered circle-backed chairs. "It's devastating," Ms. Pearson said. "I don't just buy things off the shelf."
Ms. Holstlaw, like many of her pearl-wearing, flat-shoed colleagues here, has been harboring conspiracy theories. "You go online and you can tell if a house is staged," she said. "There's nothing personal in it. In real life, everyone's knickknacks don't all blend."
Katherine Cooper, an agent for the Grubb Company, said a $3.5 million owner-occupied house in Upper Piedmont, with ornate stucco scrollwork and freshly snipped hedges, was burglarized last month. "In the old days, there was an exclusivity getting into these houses," Ms. Cooper lamented. "Now we've made it a Sunday afternoon sport."
The Oakland Association of Realtors, which has more than 1,000 members and includes Piedmont and Emeryville, sent out an e-mail bulletin last week encouraging "heightened vigilance," said Judy Rix, the office supervisor. Among the tips: let neighbors know that no one is authorized to take property out of a house, and consider an alarm system to thwart the use of "bump keys," a burglary tool illegal in California.
The police chief in Orinda, William French, said thieves there drove a stolen truck, indicating that they were more savvy criminals. "They don't have a trained eye," Chief French said. "They're not interior designers. They're crooks."
In Piedmont, real estate agents presiding over newly mulched gardens and gleaming granite countertops have begun changing time-honored ways of doing business by putting up "Do Not Disturb Occupant" signs -- even though there is not one -- and forgoing open houses in favor of showing by appointment only. For the most elite properties, "for sale" signs are vanishing.
In the gracious living room with bay windows, Ms. Holstlaw confronted the new realities, ever so politely. "Could you sign my guest book, please?" she said sweetly but firmly to absolutely everyone who wandered in.
No comments:
Post a Comment