A Safety Checklist for Moving Into a New Home - Real Estate, Updates, News & Tips

A Safety Checklist for Moving Into a New Home

Your clients have a lot to think about on moving day, but it's important that they have more than just organizing and unpacking on their to-do list, according to The Red Cross. The group recently featured several items home buyers should think about when settling in to a new house. Create fire escape plans and meeting places. The plan should include two ways to exit the home and set two different meeting places for family members. One might be a meeting area right outside of the home in case of a fire, while another would be a meeting place outside the neighborhood, in case the area is blocked in an emergency. Create a survival kit. Have enough food and water for each person for three days. The embedded video offers more tips on building a survival kit. Identify your severe weather shelter. Locate the safest spot in the home and designate it as your emergency weather shelter. The basement is the best spot.  If the home doesn't have a basement, designate an interior spot away from windows on the lowest floor of the home, such as a bathroom or closet. Update your app alert locations. Weather and safety apps may need to be notified of clients' new location details. For example, the Red Cross Emergency App offers alert preferences for all the locations and types of disasters users may want to monitor. Decorate with earthquakes in mind. This is not just a California problem anymore. Avoid hanging heavy items above seating areas, beds, and cribs. Secure furniture that could fall in a quake, such as bookshelves and televisions. Assess your fire risks. As clients are unpacking, they should be placing all flammable items at least three feet away from anything that gets hot, such as space heaters. Make sure they know not to run wiring under rugs or overload outlets and extension cords. Also, don’t forget to check the smoke alarms and make sure they’re working. Source: “Checklist for Moving into a New Home,” the American Red Cross (Jan. 26, 2017)

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