When it comes to staging a home, sellers have room to compensate for deficiencies that home owners might otherwise notice. When it comes to selling a space as a great value, sellers can stage the home with elegant décor to demonstrate that potential buyers are getting quality for their money. When selling in a dense city, sellers can offer up a space with retains rustic charm and inviting aesthetics despite its location.

However, what angle can a seller take when selling in a neighborhood that suffers crime problems?

Or, to put the question more directly, what does safety look like?

Unlike other selling points, a home’s safety isn’t as directly controllable as we’d like it to be. We can’t affect the statistics or change the neighborhood around us to improve our property value, but there are steps that we can take to improve buyer perceptions about a property. Even if you aren’t able to make the neighborhood like as safe as you’d like, you can at least make your property look like an exception to the norm in your area.

Know how to stage safety

Preparing your property to give the greatest impression of safety is ideal. There are steps that can go too far and damage your curb value, such as barred windows or high chain fencing for example, but there are subtler ways of creating an appearance of safety.

• Various types of home security equipment and signage can be installed and prominently displayed to improve your home’s value, often above the cost of installation if you’re in an area where security is a serious concern. However, avoid arming this equipment while you’re in the selling process.

• False alarms can be problematic during the sale, but they can be avoided if you’ve equipped your property with smart-home enabled devices. Being able to manage security systems of multiple properties from your phone can drastically improve your ability to keep alarms working only as necessary, and it’s a rapidly growing technology that will pique many tech-savvy buyers’ interest.

• Even if your fence isn’t high enough to necessarily repel home invasion, make sure that fences are enclosed with a locked gated entrance. Constraining a property and reducing the points of entry by which your home can be accessed can simulate a fortress for buyers, which is a fantastic way to enforce the notion that your home is safe.

• As for windows, it can help to break traditional thinking. Usually, homes are staged with clearly viewed windows, often left wide open in warm seasons to create a sense of ease and openness. However, in rougher neighborhoods, this should be done just sparingly. While windows should be clearly visible outside with trimmed hedges and no obstructions, it can help to include curtains, blinds, or window tinting to give your home a greater sense of privacy.

• Your emphasis should be to create a feeling of visibility around your property – not within it. Staging your property with floodlights around windows and doors can make it feel far safer than a property pocketed by darkness. Keep this in mind as you choose colors of your paint and décor as well; aim for bright, neutral colors whenever possible.

Find the right timing

Timing is key, especially when staging an open house. Choose a time frame that suits your property according to the problems which it experiences. If loud or thick traffic plagues your streets at peak hours, you’ll be inviting a room full of frustrated burn-outs if your open house takes place then. But when it comes to safety, there are a few issues to consider in timing.

For example, if your neighborhood is a loitering hotspot, timing your open house to take place during colder seasons can greatly reduce the odds of any undesirable audiences attending the area around your open house event. Avoid scheduling these events during holiday seasons, since this will cause your neighborhood to be flooded with the traffic of visiting relatives while other homes remain vacant (and therefore more likely to become burglarized – which is the last kind of event you want to slip to the ears of potential buyers.)

Timing your display to be during the daylight can be desirable, though if conditions aren’t ideal during this time, settling for the early evening and lighting your property with ample floodlights can be a good alternative. Darkness in a sketchier neighborhood can be intimidating, which is the last kind of impression you want to give attendants before they even arrive at your property. But when it’s unavoidable, take extra efforts to make your home appear brighter and safer.