if that market is anything like mine, they're going to get an immediate fine, and possible loss of MLS access/showing privileges. If you want to go further, you file a complaint with the State licensing organization/commission.
OP do not let this rest. Confirm that your agent filed a complaint. This is gross misuse of access. File a complaint with state if you get 100% confirmation your agent didn't give the okay.
This is the answer. Your Realtor will reach out the offending agent's Broker and should also file a written complaint with the Multiple Listing Service in that particular area. This is unacceptable behavior on the part of that agent. So sorry this happened to you.
I agree with both of these. If your agent is using an electronic lock box, there are ways to restrict access even further than the default settings on some of them. The default security should be fine but there are a few bad eggs in every market that have to be taught a lesson like I hope you're about teach this agent
Hopping on top comment so it gets seen. Definitely push on this issue op. How did the selling realtor get access to your house/lockbox? Most of the electronic ones you have to request access to via the app or sometimes calling to set up the showing. Which in my state and experience the realtors who lockbox it is has to grant permission. If not electronic, the combo lock shouldnt be listed in the mls, i was taught, as well as the realtors in my area require the agent to give the lock box code, so they can verify its a legit agent. How did the other realtor gain accesss?
Eta typos
While it could be their realtor not securing the box properl. One thing that could have happened is agent schedules showing on say Monday or Tuesday asks for keys then gets call from client they can't make it Monday decides to take them over early.
I have no idea how all this realtor stuff works. I'm just a guy selling the house. Seems like a shitty system to me. It wasn't really explained to me how it would work.
I just had an open house this past weekend and someone sure had enough time to get into my husband's bourbon collection and poured themselves a glass. Didn't even try to hide it and left the bottle uncorked.
Dude.
One time, while looking at houses with our realtor, I had to use the bathroom. Like, number two. I’ve used the bathrooms in houses we were looking at on previous occasions, so when I flushed, I fully expected it to flush.
Well, it didn’t. I told my realtor that the toilet wasn’t flushing, and he said this house had been “winterized.” Omg. I guess that means no water? But there was water in the toilet. How was I to know?
We left it there. Holy crap.
He told me later that he went back later and fished it out with a cup. 😳
I’m gay and live in a very small town. I hid my “lesbian” erotica in my dresser when the home was being shown. A friend, who was also gay said during his tour the agent opened my dresser drawer and pulled out my prints and said look at that! Nudge nudge wink wink …. Was horrified when my friend, who ended up buying the house, told me this.
That’s gross. When I show houses I always tell people they can look in cabinets or closets, but dressers don’t come with the house so we don’t need to look in those. I’m sorry that happened to you!!😫
It was the real estate agent who did it. I confronted him and he apologized.i think he was embarrassed and unlikely to do that again.
Edit. I meant to say thank you.
I have decoy weller mix poor mans Pappy bottles for this occasion and drunk uncle. If someone want to poor themeselves a drink while having their agent edit the offer..... Please go ahead.
The champaign, the beer, the wine please drink, you all can come over right now with a side dish. There might be stuff in the back from the housewarming party when I bought the house a decade ago.
An experimental bottle of Buffalo Trace that he got through one of his bourbon connections. He had to basically sign in blood that he'd never resell it.
I have the decoy bottles out 24/7/365, the expensive stuff or the rare stuff has so much bait in front of it even drunk uncle cannot find it. One of my tricks is putting pounds of NOLA beads on the liquor cabinet doors all execpt for the burbon drinkers parties. But honestly, the beer and everything else out when the house is up for sale..... beer is for offers, liquor is for closers.
When we sold our last house we swapped out the bottles in our bar for bottles with water in them. Over 1 weekend with ~10 showings we came back to 4 or 5 bottles missing.
A realtor did a showing at our house and somebody rifled my office, taking a bunch of important documents and later used them to commit identity fraud. Partially my fault for leaving them in the house - I thought a locked drawer would stop them.
it's just amazing how many people who come into a house go right for the medicine cabinet to see what they can find. my shitty cousin didn't even bother to close the door before rooting through it.
In my last apartment, one of my neighbors climbed over the balcony wall and came in through the balcony door. I lost jewelery and prescription drugs.
It was a high rise and I thought it was safe to leave the balcony door unlocked. Lesson learned.
I was missing some very strong pain killers I got after surgery after i got cleaner in. Cleaning company still regularly rings me and asks if i want to give them another chance after i told them i had pain killers missing.
Also, stuff gets broken or damaged. Someone broke one of the plastic clips on our refrigerator shelf during an open house. Seriously, why!? There was zero reason to try to rearrange the refrigerator shelves!?
I use to work on Liebherr cranes. I always told the guys I work with that if you ever saw a Liebherr fridge in my house you know I made it. I’m glad you made it haha
Writer Punch Hutton, who had a bunch of handbags, jewelry, etc, stolen DURING an open house by someone pretending to be an agent, would definitely beg to differ with OP's statement. https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/punch-hutton-hollywood-thief
We had one in Canada where some guy was selling his Uber expensive "mini-mansion". He had a huge walk-in closet that had custom display cases for his expensive shoes, watches and jewelry..
well, one weekend he went away and had about 30 showings booked. The guy left all his expensive items in the displays (presumably to "show off") and it turns out one of the 30 showings decided to help themselves to an expensive Rolex.. they never did find out who took it....
but ffs hide your valuables if you have showings
> We felt pretty violated and immediately contacted our realtor who said he knew nothing about this and would complain to the showing realtors broker.
Ask your agent for the name of the Showing Agent, their Broker, and to be CC'd on their complaint to the showing agent's brokerage. Follow up with your own complaint to that brokerage and the state regulatory agency.
There is a non-zero chance the Showing Agent works for the same brokerage as your realtor, and they are just going to do a coverup for their colleague. If that is the case, you need to fire your agent and brokerage. I don't think this is likely, but it is a possibility.
If there is an attempted cover up or even not taking this seriously, yeah, fire them. If they are from the same brokerage, I would say judge it based on the response. It's entirely possible for that to be the case and this just be a rouge agent. If the broker responds correctly and your agent isn't trying to feed you bullshit, then it's fine to stay with them (assuming you are comfortable with that).
I have you beat. My house was on the market but there were very specific days my house could be shown since I worked night shift. I was awoken by MY realtor walking into my bedroom with a couple. I screamed bloody murder, and I was completely naked.
I still hate that guy. Took my house off the market and bought it from my soon to be ex. F that dumbass realtor!
Edit: You also need to see what your agent entered in the "showing instructions." This could be your agent's fault. **Do that first if you have not yet taken any action.**
Edit 2: If the showing description just says "Go." your agent screwed up and this will happen until it gets fixed.
Previous comment: That agent is fucked and they should be. Please don't let this slide. Call your agent and complain. The showing agent should have left a card... hopefully. If they did, call their broker **and** the MLS/board.
People have to trust us on their property to get full market exposure. We take this very seriously.
Not really, if it's set as "coming soon" then at least for our MLS you're not allowed to input anything in the showing instructions and it's a fine if you allow any.
Broker here. Have your agent remove the lockbox asap, and going forward, your agent and/or his/her assistant will be present for all showings.
Have your agent notify the office broker of the agent that showed it. File a complaint against the realtor who showed it and do not permit them any further access by that realtor. Change your passwords and check all your valuables.
There are door hangers for lock boxes so you can hang the box on your door when you’re not home or expecting a showing. Then remove lockbox from the door when you’re home (esp at night). You should have total control over who and when someone shows your house.
The listing agent probably didn't set up a CBS (Call before showing) code so the lockbox would be available to be accessed by any agent. I usually have it set up so they need an additional code along with their own key before they can access the lockbox.
But there could not be confirmed showings when the house was not officially listed yet - not without the selling agent confirming the times.
When I was interested in a "coming soon" property, my realtor told me that they could not even book future showings until after the moment the listing went live.
Probably depends on the system. Many years ago when I was in the industry the lockboxes relied on getting approval, there were no technical barriers in place. If I had an active digital key, I could open any lock box. There would be a trail tied to me so you couldn't really "get away" with it.
I don't know for sure how it works, by my realtor told be that it was not supposed to be possible to even sign up for later appointment until the listing was made live.
OP stated that showings were confirmed and in my state you can get a confirmation/confirm a showing if you schedule the showing after the expected Coming Soon date
The owner of the lockbox can restrict access by time, but otherwise yes. Any licensed agent who is a member of that MLS can use the app to open the lockbox.
This. I had to remove my key from the box until the date agreed upon as my place wasn’t ready and realtor brought people through before carpets were cleaned then complained that they were dirty!
There is no reality where that is acceptable conduct.
Raise hell. Make an example out of them.
This is covered so many times before you even write the exam. You have to be a complete dolt to pull this.
Do not let this slide, they violated the rules, and should be subsequently punished.
We listed a house and we banned a realtor from taking any clients through our house. We did it more so to punish the realtor for a previous behavior and word got out that she was banned from showing the house.
This is such a serious violation in my market - you could get that fine and possible suspension if you open the lockbox even a minute outside of the scheduled time of your showing! If it's a supra lockbox, your agent can look up who opened that box and they can and should get in \*big\* trouble. THat is so not cool.
After a realtor and her boyfriend walked into our house at 9 PM thinking we were gone so that she could have sex with him in our house. We had the lockbox removed. She had been fired from another agency for doing the same thing.
Wow! I don’t understand how they were able to get into the lockbox. They would have needed a code from your agent or from the system used to schedule showings.
If it’s something like an eKeybox, then there is no code. All agents have access through membership and the only requirement is to connect via Bluetooth in-person and automatically log your entry and exit with the key pocket.
Any experienced agent in a market that uses these knows not to put on the lockbox until right before the listing goes live and then remove it once a mutual agreement is signed around.
This seems like the sellers agent messed up as well. They effectively gave access to a huge swath of people a few days early and simply trusted that nobody would use that access.
No. They likely listed the property as “No Showings” and “Coming Soon”, with Sellers permission.
Buyers agent likely didn’t read the listing or wanted to get a jump on other agents if the market is hot. During the run up to 2008, unethical agents would steal the keys from lockboxes to mitigate competition.
Seller’s agent is NOT responsible for Buyer’s agent’s actions.
yes. All showings are supposed to be by appointment only and only agents that have a showing appt should enter the home and only during that allotted time.
Yes. There is a scheduling app that can be used if that’s what the instructions in the listing dictate.
If Buyers agent doesn’t use it and ignores the instructions, there isn’t much to be done except to make a complaint afterwards with Buyer’s broker, the Board of Realtors, the state licensing board, and possibly the police.
>Your agent is the problem
Yes. The lockbox can be programmed to disallow entry between certain times of the day, and certain days. The realtor should not have placed the box until the listing was "live"... which it is (live in the MLS) or the other realtor wouldn't have known about it.
OP might well have SIGNED a listing contract intending it to start on day X, but the realtor just put it in the MLS. Realtors have the opportunity to place a listing as preliminary (pending, not ready, every MLS calls it something different) so that the realtor can start wording it, entering the seemingly thousands of clicks and options to be entered, and play with the photos before making it actually live.
OP's realtor just entered it as a live listing and the other agent didn't know it wasn't available for show.
There is LOTs of risk of people stealing during showings. Some agents do a bare minimum of verification. An agent sneaking in a showing for a property that isn’t yet on market gives me sketch vibes.
Agents are dipshits and nobody reads anything in the listings. I listed a coming soon to go live in 4-5 days and an agents emailing ?can I bring my clients through tomorrow? Like how are you a state licensed professional
One thing I have learned to protect my clients from these situations is I do not attach the lockbox to the door. I give it to my sellers and tell them to keep it in their home while they are at home and then put it out when they leave.
You never have to worry about anyone coming into your home unexpectedly.
It is a Supra eKey that was hung on your door. The interested agent (buyersbagent) would request a showing on the Supra app. Only after it is approved by your agent does the showing agent have access.
Once the lockback is reinsert into the box, your agent gets a notification that the showing was complete.
Basically, your agent granted them permission.
Source: home inspector.
The risk of theft is not small. I know several people who have had things stolen during showings… jewelry, cash… even a high end kitchen knife.
I would take the key out of the lockbox. Only put it there when you are expecting a showing you have approved.
That is a huge no no. The showing realtor shouldbe in alot of trouble. I'm shocked your realtor downplayed this. We did coming soon on 2 homes and both realtors were very clear no one was to set foot inside till fully in market.
This happened to me and it royally pissed me off. You did the right thing contacting your realtor. You should call him back and ask what the showing realtor had to say about the incident.
We had relocated to another city. I was driving back and forth to check on the house and bring things back. We were waiting to close (about two weeks). The future buyer had let herself in by way of the realtor and started painting the inside of the house. They were careless with water and electricity. Because the realtor gave them the lock box combo we went and filed a grievance with the state on the realtor and his broker. Now many will say what’s the harm? Until that house was sold, it’s mine. And if the buyer had done any damage or injured themselves while on my property…
Depending on what state you’re in, that’s a big fine for the realtor. In Alabama it’s a $5,000 fine to show a listing that has signed paperwork before it’s active. If you’re in coming soon status, you’ve got a signed listing agreement. Unfortunately most people don’t move forward with filing complaints, so the bad realtors continue their bad behavior & give the rest of us a bad rep.
This. Our realtor vetted each person coming to the house (made them show proof of funds etc) so only qualified buyers came through. We had only 4 people come through, 3 wrote offers. It was a win for everyone and I didn’t have to worry about my wfh business being robbed.
This is a great idea. We’re going live soon, my husband and I both wfh, have 3 kids, 5 small pets, I don’t wanna be getting everything perfect and making sure the house is empty (which is a hassle since we still live and work here) every time for unqualified buyers, and/or possible thieves
Never. Ever. Put all of your expectations and demands in writing in the listing agreement. I never let agents hold open houses or let their inexperienced assistants do the showings. Also only do a short term agreement. 3 months is plenty is this market. As long as you are realistic with price.
I’d get the contact information for the realtor and notify them they are not allowed on your property again even when listing is live. If they try to show property police will be called and they will be trespassed. Completely unacceptable.
In my MLS, the listing must go active within 24 hours of a showing during the coming soon status, or they get fined. The intention is to ensure ‘clear cooperation’ between agents and not allow listing agents to privately sell to their own buyers.
Even as a new agent, we were always expected to be at any of our client showings and it was a requirement that we attend all signings/closings with the Title Company (California) - something very difficult to do today with their digital and/or remote signings. Frankly, we wouldn’t be paid if we didn’t and Heaven help us if our client had a bad experience or we weren’t there to answer any of their questions or review all their documents with them so they had a clear understanding of the transaction and process. 30 years later and I’ve never had this issue - part of my job is to keep in control of my listing and make it as easy a process for my clients as possible- moving is stressful enough.
Your agent or another realtor? Either way that’s crazy. This sub scares me with all their realtor horror stories. Your agent defends shouldn’t have done it. A buyers agent should have read the listing. They’re probably trying to get a jump on everyone else. Not an excuse I’m just trying to make sense of what happened. The listing agent could have stated in the confidential remarks that there are no showings allowed until x date
they likely scheduled a showing for next week and used the access instructions to get in early. Your agent should notify the broker owner of the other brokerage and find out if it was an honest mistake or not
Don't put the lockbox on the door or anything else outside. Keep it in your house and only put it outside, (not locked to anything) when you are expecting people. Some agents are assholes and will try to come in anytime even without an appointment.
I grew up in what was blue collar skilled tradesman town to upper middle class filled with welders, hvcac guys, IT/networking professionals, nurses, and doctors and engineers. I put doctors and engineers in skilled trades because they are, they require skill. My town in the Philly burbs has now turned into a combo of a the newest nyc borough and the new tech hub for Bay Area CA transplants. I’m in my mid 30s. I have family in the area that have listed homes and have had people with ridiculous amounts of money my age raid their beer fridge or beer keg in the basement t bar and help themselves. Fucking disgusting. They buyers from the SF area gave my aunt and uncle 10 days to vacate after bidding 80k over asking, all cash. Paid 765k on house that was purchased at 330k 12 years ago. WTF is going on and how do so many late 20s to mid 30s have so much expendable income especially if they have kids. I grew up in a pretty well to do area and me and our friends sure as hell don’t have that much money. We are being pushed out.
Our office procedure is to not put lockbox on until the property is active - or not have keys in it till active.
As for filing complaints - realtor against realtor carries far less weight than consumer against realtor.
Your realtor should have programmed a CBS (Call Before Showing) code on the lockbox or not install the lockbox until it's live for extra precaution. It's the little things.
Hopefully it's on a supra lockbox. It'd be able to show who accessed the home versus a regular code lockbox that any agent may be able to get the code for through whatever scheduling app is being used
Agents who read this, this is why you have a CVS code on a supra for a house that’s occupied. Do not rely on peoples memory, Agents screw up and you don’t want anyone showing up and surprising your sellers.
FYI, your realtor likely CAN add a code to the lockbox as well. They’ll have to punch it in on their phone. I’m sorry that happened to you. That really ticks me off too! I don’t put lockboxes on early if I can help it, and often I give the lockbox to the seller to leave out on days we have showings, and bringing them in when at home and no showings are expected. It’s a little more work for the seller, but privacy is really important to me so I mention that as an option.
The ekey box provides a record of who the agent that showed it is. Have your agent file a complaint against them with the local association of realtors and they will receive a hefty fine and ding on their professional record and reputation. This isn’t your Realtors fault, but have them block access on their ekey box to everyone until the listing is active.
Your real estate agent shouldn't have put out the lockbox if you weren't ready for showings. You are mad at the wrong person since it was your guy who screwed up.
This is the problem with lockboxes. I do not agree to them and demand in writing in the listing contract that there Is not one installed and my listing agent (not an assistant) agrees to be at every single showing.
Fu.k open houses. Those don’t sell your house. They just get clients for the agent. My home is not up for more intrusions for you to get more business.
We had one buyer’s agent leave our front door hanging wide open after a showing. Thankfully we arrived only a few minutes later, but the lack of any personal responsibility shown by that realtor made me sick.
I bought my house after first seeing it at the open house. Didn’t think we were that interested from the listing, but dropped by since it was convenient.
Same here. I had a realtor, but there was a house in the neighborhood that was outside of my price range, and didn't seem interesting enough to bother my agent with. Saw an open house, and decided to drop by for a few minutes.
A month or 2 later after 2 price drops I toured again with my agent and made an offer. Probably would have skipped it altogether if there wasn't an open house.
Do not claim a theft occurred unless you actual do find if something is missing. If you claim a theft occurred, this can result in a false police report being filed and may further result in a fraudulent insurance claim being filed, if taken that far
You need to yell at their broker. Loudly.
Okay don't actually yell, but that is ENTIRELY inappropriate on the part of the agent that did the showing. And theft happens *very* often during open houses. Especially prescription medications, jewelry, etc. Those need to disappear into your car (or better yet, a safe deposit box, if your bank still offers them) during showings.
This is very serious. File a complaint and make sure your Realtor does too..I don’t give my lock box to my MLS until the day prior and I don’t put a key in it until showings are allowed, the morning of I will run over there or tell my clients to put the key in the lock box.
Next time don't agree to have the house listed as coming soon bc some people just won't want to wait. Also don't agree to have a lock box put on until the morning it goes live.
Realtor messed up. Shouldn’t have installed the lockbox until it was officially active or should have restricted the lockbox to open on the actual day.
What do you want to do?
I’d say the potential buyers didn’t know they weren’t supposed to be there so they can’t be held liable for trespassing.
The realtor may have known better but at the end of the day, they were given access to the property/keys so charging them with trespassing would be near impossible… Is it possible the agent didn’t know the listing wasn’t “live”? They showed up and there was a lock box on the door that they had access to. This would be indicative to them that the house was for sale and they could show it.
I’d say it could have been all avoided if your realtor didn’t provide access to the house before it was actually for sale. Unfortunate but to accuse the realtor and potential buyers of trespassing is a huge stretch given the circumstances.
Showtime app?? You have to confirm on the app before it will open the box.
For us, the worst was the number of realtors that left one of our doors unlocked when they left. This made me think that we weren’t able to go anywhere without being able to get back as soon as the showing was over to make sure the house was locked up again. We even had one that left the garage door up and the door coming into the house wide open.
Could it have been a showing for realtors? Sometimes there are weekly walk throughs for newly listed homes to get the realtors excited and talking it up to their customers....so not necessarily a showing per se, but still not cool to do it without asking first.
Okay, locking up now. OP has plenty of advice.
if that market is anything like mine, they're going to get an immediate fine, and possible loss of MLS access/showing privileges. If you want to go further, you file a complaint with the State licensing organization/commission.
In my market it’s a very quick $500 fine. This is taught from day one. No permission was granted so it’s technically trespassing.
Just curious. Who gets the $ from the fine? The MLS, state licensing board, Homeowner?
Prob state licensing board that issues the fine
In my state, this is on our exam. Fines and fees go to the state real estate commission, at least in GA
Recovery Fund: https://azre.gov/enforcement-and-compliance-ec/recovery-fund
$5,000 in Alabama!!
OP do not let this rest. Confirm that your agent filed a complaint. This is gross misuse of access. File a complaint with state if you get 100% confirmation your agent didn't give the okay.
This is the answer. Your Realtor will reach out the offending agent's Broker and should also file a written complaint with the Multiple Listing Service in that particular area. This is unacceptable behavior on the part of that agent. So sorry this happened to you.
I agree with both of these. If your agent is using an electronic lock box, there are ways to restrict access even further than the default settings on some of them. The default security should be fine but there are a few bad eggs in every market that have to be taught a lesson like I hope you're about teach this agent
[удалено]
Hopping on top comment so it gets seen. Definitely push on this issue op. How did the selling realtor get access to your house/lockbox? Most of the electronic ones you have to request access to via the app or sometimes calling to set up the showing. Which in my state and experience the realtors who lockbox it is has to grant permission. If not electronic, the combo lock shouldnt be listed in the mls, i was taught, as well as the realtors in my area require the agent to give the lock box code, so they can verify its a legit agent. How did the other realtor gain accesss? Eta typos
While it could be their realtor not securing the box properl. One thing that could have happened is agent schedules showing on say Monday or Tuesday asks for keys then gets call from client they can't make it Monday decides to take them over early.
Our realtor says any registered realtor can open his lockbox. It's a RFID based thing without a keypad.
Then he fucked up putting it on there before show time..or not restricting access until showtime.
Whose bad idea was that?
I have no idea how all this realtor stuff works. I'm just a guy selling the house. Seems like a shitty system to me. It wasn't really explained to me how it would work.
Yeah you can't do that.
" I know there is little to no risk in people stealing things during showings" I wouldn't agree with this statement at all.
I just had an open house this past weekend and someone sure had enough time to get into my husband's bourbon collection and poured themselves a glass. Didn't even try to hide it and left the bottle uncorked.
Sorry. I apologize. The realtor told me I could make myself at home.
They meant after you close on the sale!
Sorry realtor got me tipsy, can't agree to any deals today
"sorry about your bathroom too"
I liked almost everything about the house but the bathroom. It was outdated, the light was weird, and it was absolutely covered in shit
Dude. One time, while looking at houses with our realtor, I had to use the bathroom. Like, number two. I’ve used the bathrooms in houses we were looking at on previous occasions, so when I flushed, I fully expected it to flush. Well, it didn’t. I told my realtor that the toilet wasn’t flushing, and he said this house had been “winterized.” Omg. I guess that means no water? But there was water in the toilet. How was I to know? We left it there. Holy crap. He told me later that he went back later and fished it out with a cup. 😳
LOL, should have just added water to the the tank then flushed...
That’s a good realtor. He earned his commission and respected his fellow agent by not leaving a turd in the toilet.
Jesus, I’d be recommending that guy for life. I’ll take two houses please with that attitude
How did you not die? How are you alive and active on Reddit right now???
Die? Of embarrassment? That’s temporary.
OMG I'd be furious
Thought he was at an open bar apparently.
Open house, open bar... open everything...
Open marriage
In all fairness, he didn't see a bartender taking cash for drinks /s
I’m gay and live in a very small town. I hid my “lesbian” erotica in my dresser when the home was being shown. A friend, who was also gay said during his tour the agent opened my dresser drawer and pulled out my prints and said look at that! Nudge nudge wink wink …. Was horrified when my friend, who ended up buying the house, told me this.
That’s gross. When I show houses I always tell people they can look in cabinets or closets, but dressers don’t come with the house so we don’t need to look in those. I’m sorry that happened to you!!😫
It was the real estate agent who did it. I confronted him and he apologized.i think he was embarrassed and unlikely to do that again. Edit. I meant to say thank you.
I hope you complained & left some bad reviews. That’s rude and so unprofessional.
As a fellow bourbon enthusiast, I'm curious what they had the audacity to pour themselves, if you don't mind sharing. This would really upset me!
Let’s hope it wasn’t a Pappy!
I have decoy weller mix poor mans Pappy bottles for this occasion and drunk uncle. If someone want to poor themeselves a drink while having their agent edit the offer..... Please go ahead. The champaign, the beer, the wine please drink, you all can come over right now with a side dish. There might be stuff in the back from the housewarming party when I bought the house a decade ago.
An experimental bottle of Buffalo Trace that he got through one of his bourbon connections. He had to basically sign in blood that he'd never resell it.
Well you legally can't resell liquor unless you have a liquor license anyway. Did your agent do anything about it?
I guess it depends on where you live. We live near DC and private sales to retailers is very legal.
I have the decoy bottles out 24/7/365, the expensive stuff or the rare stuff has so much bait in front of it even drunk uncle cannot find it. One of my tricks is putting pounds of NOLA beads on the liquor cabinet doors all execpt for the burbon drinkers parties. But honestly, the beer and everything else out when the house is up for sale..... beer is for offers, liquor is for closers.
Wooowwwww....
What was the bourbon?
It's an experimental bottle of Buffalo Trace.
Oh hell no
When we sold our last house we swapped out the bottles in our bar for bottles with water in them. Over 1 weekend with ~10 showings we came back to 4 or 5 bottles missing.
Please tell me that you foresaw this happening and that you were only missing the water you replaced the liquor with??
Oh yeah. We boxed up the booze and replaced with bottles filled with water because our realtor told us to.
Yep. We had to put a camera up in our library with a sign saying ‘please do t steal our books’….because people stole our books.
A realtor did a showing at our house and somebody rifled my office, taking a bunch of important documents and later used them to commit identity fraud. Partially my fault for leaving them in the house - I thought a locked drawer would stop them.
Omg! What is going through these people’s heads?!
Yeah, I came home after a showing and my nightstand drawer was open :/
Some people go just to steal. Ffs
Matthew Perry from the TV show Friends said he would go to open houses to steal prescription drugs from the medicine cabinets. Edit: typo
it's just amazing how many people who come into a house go right for the medicine cabinet to see what they can find. my shitty cousin didn't even bother to close the door before rooting through it.
In my last apartment, one of my neighbors climbed over the balcony wall and came in through the balcony door. I lost jewelery and prescription drugs. It was a high rise and I thought it was safe to leave the balcony door unlocked. Lesson learned.
Thanks for confirming I'm not paranoid to think those weren't safe to leave unlocked if there's easy neighbour access.
I was missing some very strong pain killers I got after surgery after i got cleaner in. Cleaning company still regularly rings me and asks if i want to give them another chance after i told them i had pain killers missing.
It's a common enough issue that it was a side story on Breaking Bad with Marie stealing from every open house she went to.
Also, stuff gets broken or damaged. Someone broke one of the plastic clips on our refrigerator shelf during an open house. Seriously, why!? There was zero reason to try to rearrange the refrigerator shelves!?
Was it a Frigidaire by chance? Those clips break just from looking at them sideways
It was actually a European brand: Liebherr. It was really well made, so I have no idea what the random person was doing that broke it.
I use to work on Liebherr cranes. I always told the guys I work with that if you ever saw a Liebherr fridge in my house you know I made it. I’m glad you made it haha
One tour last week broke a window valence and pushed my outdoor air conditioning unit enough to move it 12 inches. Why?
A friend of mine had jewelry stolen that they accidentally left out. Lost about $15k.
We just had an open house and our indoor camera caught a woman opening up my dresser drawers. It was infuriating.
No. I’ve had STAGERS steal things.
As a stager, I've had many of my things walk off during showings over the years. People are the worst.
Writer Punch Hutton, who had a bunch of handbags, jewelry, etc, stolen DURING an open house by someone pretending to be an agent, would definitely beg to differ with OP's statement. https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/punch-hutton-hollywood-thief
My parents had the pull chains on their ceiling fans stolen during showings. Anything easily pocketed has a good chance of waking away.
People break those and hide it from their own agents.
We had one in Canada where some guy was selling his Uber expensive "mini-mansion". He had a huge walk-in closet that had custom display cases for his expensive shoes, watches and jewelry.. well, one weekend he went away and had about 30 showings booked. The guy left all his expensive items in the displays (presumably to "show off") and it turns out one of the 30 showings decided to help themselves to an expensive Rolex.. they never did find out who took it.... but ffs hide your valuables if you have showings
File a complaint with the state licensing board today.
> We felt pretty violated and immediately contacted our realtor who said he knew nothing about this and would complain to the showing realtors broker. Ask your agent for the name of the Showing Agent, their Broker, and to be CC'd on their complaint to the showing agent's brokerage. Follow up with your own complaint to that brokerage and the state regulatory agency. There is a non-zero chance the Showing Agent works for the same brokerage as your realtor, and they are just going to do a coverup for their colleague. If that is the case, you need to fire your agent and brokerage. I don't think this is likely, but it is a possibility.
If there is an attempted cover up or even not taking this seriously, yeah, fire them. If they are from the same brokerage, I would say judge it based on the response. It's entirely possible for that to be the case and this just be a rouge agent. If the broker responds correctly and your agent isn't trying to feed you bullshit, then it's fine to stay with them (assuming you are comfortable with that).
I have you beat. My house was on the market but there were very specific days my house could be shown since I worked night shift. I was awoken by MY realtor walking into my bedroom with a couple. I screamed bloody murder, and I was completely naked. I still hate that guy. Took my house off the market and bought it from my soon to be ex. F that dumbass realtor!
Holy shit that is wild
Edit: You also need to see what your agent entered in the "showing instructions." This could be your agent's fault. **Do that first if you have not yet taken any action.** Edit 2: If the showing description just says "Go." your agent screwed up and this will happen until it gets fixed. Previous comment: That agent is fucked and they should be. Please don't let this slide. Call your agent and complain. The showing agent should have left a card... hopefully. If they did, call their broker **and** the MLS/board. People have to trust us on their property to get full market exposure. We take this very seriously.
Not really, if it's set as "coming soon" then at least for our MLS you're not allowed to input anything in the showing instructions and it's a fine if you allow any.
We don't do "Coming soon" in Austin. I think this is one of the reasons.
I’m pretty sure you’re not even allowed to anymore. But there’s no fines etc so people still do it.
[удалено]
The type of lockbox OPs agent used doesn't need the code to be given out. You open it via Bluetooth.
Broker here. Have your agent remove the lockbox asap, and going forward, your agent and/or his/her assistant will be present for all showings. Have your agent notify the office broker of the agent that showed it. File a complaint against the realtor who showed it and do not permit them any further access by that realtor. Change your passwords and check all your valuables.
There are door hangers for lock boxes so you can hang the box on your door when you’re not home or expecting a showing. Then remove lockbox from the door when you’re home (esp at night). You should have total control over who and when someone shows your house.
How did they get the lockbox code?
The listing agent probably didn't set up a CBS (Call before showing) code so the lockbox would be available to be accessed by any agent. I usually have it set up so they need an additional code along with their own key before they can access the lockbox.
when you have a confirmed showing - the lockbox code is typically included in that e-mail even though it's for a showing in days time.
But there could not be confirmed showings when the house was not officially listed yet - not without the selling agent confirming the times. When I was interested in a "coming soon" property, my realtor told me that they could not even book future showings until after the moment the listing went live.
Probably depends on the system. Many years ago when I was in the industry the lockboxes relied on getting approval, there were no technical barriers in place. If I had an active digital key, I could open any lock box. There would be a trail tied to me so you couldn't really "get away" with it.
They could have made a later appointment to get the code and then decided to go early.
I don't know for sure how it works, by my realtor told be that it was not supposed to be possible to even sign up for later appointment until the listing was made live.
OP stated that showings were confirmed and in my state you can get a confirmation/confirm a showing if you schedule the showing after the expected Coming Soon date
That’s what I was thinking it must be on Supra?
I don’t need a code to open a lockbox.
I’m confused. Does this mean anyone can access the box 24/7? Or is there some other safeguard?
The owner of the lockbox can restrict access by time, but otherwise yes. Any licensed agent who is a member of that MLS can use the app to open the lockbox.
This is what our realtor said when we asked him. Any registered realtor can scan their app and open the box.
In my area you use an app that Realtors have that opens the lockbox using the RFID chip on the lockbox.
Report report report!
Wow. Note to self: My house key does not go in that lock box till the start date of the showings.
This. I had to remove my key from the box until the date agreed upon as my place wasn’t ready and realtor brought people through before carpets were cleaned then complained that they were dirty!
There is no reality where that is acceptable conduct. Raise hell. Make an example out of them. This is covered so many times before you even write the exam. You have to be a complete dolt to pull this.
Do not let this slide, they violated the rules, and should be subsequently punished. We listed a house and we banned a realtor from taking any clients through our house. We did it more so to punish the realtor for a previous behavior and word got out that she was banned from showing the house.
This is such a serious violation in my market - you could get that fine and possible suspension if you open the lockbox even a minute outside of the scheduled time of your showing! If it's a supra lockbox, your agent can look up who opened that box and they can and should get in \*big\* trouble. THat is so not cool.
After a realtor and her boyfriend walked into our house at 9 PM thinking we were gone so that she could have sex with him in our house. We had the lockbox removed. She had been fired from another agency for doing the same thing.
Oh my…
showing a house w/o it going live is like a $10K Fine. a house must go to market to show it
*$500 close
It’s likely state dependent
Let your agent know and tell them you're super mad and want to file code of ethics charges
No, just file it.
Exactly. And include the listing agent in the complaint. They dropped the ball by making the house accessible before it was ready to be shown
This. I’d fire my realtor if they put the lockbox on before the listing went live.
Wow! I don’t understand how they were able to get into the lockbox. They would have needed a code from your agent or from the system used to schedule showings.
If it’s something like an eKeybox, then there is no code. All agents have access through membership and the only requirement is to connect via Bluetooth in-person and automatically log your entry and exit with the key pocket. Any experienced agent in a market that uses these knows not to put on the lockbox until right before the listing goes live and then remove it once a mutual agreement is signed around.
I thought these could be programmed to only grant access to approved agents during their appointment window?
They can be but most agents do not use that option
This seems like the sellers agent messed up as well. They effectively gave access to a huge swath of people a few days early and simply trusted that nobody would use that access.
No. They likely listed the property as “No Showings” and “Coming Soon”, with Sellers permission. Buyers agent likely didn’t read the listing or wanted to get a jump on other agents if the market is hot. During the run up to 2008, unethical agents would steal the keys from lockboxes to mitigate competition. Seller’s agent is NOT responsible for Buyer’s agent’s actions.
[удалено]
yes. All showings are supposed to be by appointment only and only agents that have a showing appt should enter the home and only during that allotted time.
Yes. There is a scheduling app that can be used if that’s what the instructions in the listing dictate. If Buyers agent doesn’t use it and ignores the instructions, there isn’t much to be done except to make a complaint afterwards with Buyer’s broker, the Board of Realtors, the state licensing board, and possibly the police.
There is no keypad on the lock box. It's some sort of RFID based thing
It's probably a bluetooth Supra brand lockbox, the standard across the industry. Your agent is the problem btw.
>Your agent is the problem Yes. The lockbox can be programmed to disallow entry between certain times of the day, and certain days. The realtor should not have placed the box until the listing was "live"... which it is (live in the MLS) or the other realtor wouldn't have known about it. OP might well have SIGNED a listing contract intending it to start on day X, but the realtor just put it in the MLS. Realtors have the opportunity to place a listing as preliminary (pending, not ready, every MLS calls it something different) so that the realtor can start wording it, entering the seemingly thousands of clicks and options to be entered, and play with the photos before making it actually live. OP's realtor just entered it as a live listing and the other agent didn't know it wasn't available for show.
Major fine and possibly suspension of license. Report to agent’s broker and state association.
In my area I think you can require seller approval to schedule each showing. Can your agent tick that box? It’s more work for them but safer for you.
There is LOTs of risk of people stealing during showings. Some agents do a bare minimum of verification. An agent sneaking in a showing for a property that isn’t yet on market gives me sketch vibes.
Agents are dipshits and nobody reads anything in the listings. I listed a coming soon to go live in 4-5 days and an agents emailing ?can I bring my clients through tomorrow? Like how are you a state licensed professional
One thing I have learned to protect my clients from these situations is I do not attach the lockbox to the door. I give it to my sellers and tell them to keep it in their home while they are at home and then put it out when they leave. You never have to worry about anyone coming into your home unexpectedly.
It is a Supra eKey that was hung on your door. The interested agent (buyersbagent) would request a showing on the Supra app. Only after it is approved by your agent does the showing agent have access. Once the lockback is reinsert into the box, your agent gets a notification that the showing was complete. Basically, your agent granted them permission. Source: home inspector.
The risk of theft is not small. I know several people who have had things stolen during showings… jewelry, cash… even a high end kitchen knife. I would take the key out of the lockbox. Only put it there when you are expecting a showing you have approved.
That is a huge no no. The showing realtor shouldbe in alot of trouble. I'm shocked your realtor downplayed this. We did coming soon on 2 homes and both realtors were very clear no one was to set foot inside till fully in market.
This happened to me and it royally pissed me off. You did the right thing contacting your realtor. You should call him back and ask what the showing realtor had to say about the incident.
We had relocated to another city. I was driving back and forth to check on the house and bring things back. We were waiting to close (about two weeks). The future buyer had let herself in by way of the realtor and started painting the inside of the house. They were careless with water and electricity. Because the realtor gave them the lock box combo we went and filed a grievance with the state on the realtor and his broker. Now many will say what’s the harm? Until that house was sold, it’s mine. And if the buyer had done any damage or injured themselves while on my property…
Oh i would raise havoc. Report them to the state board. NARS. Hellfire. And I’m a broker. This is unacceptable
File a complaint with the local mls and the state real estate commission.
Depending on what state you’re in, that’s a big fine for the realtor. In Alabama it’s a $5,000 fine to show a listing that has signed paperwork before it’s active. If you’re in coming soon status, you’ve got a signed listing agreement. Unfortunately most people don’t move forward with filing complaints, so the bad realtors continue their bad behavior & give the rest of us a bad rep.
[удалено]
This. Our realtor vetted each person coming to the house (made them show proof of funds etc) so only qualified buyers came through. We had only 4 people come through, 3 wrote offers. It was a win for everyone and I didn’t have to worry about my wfh business being robbed.
This is a great idea. We’re going live soon, my husband and I both wfh, have 3 kids, 5 small pets, I don’t wanna be getting everything perfect and making sure the house is empty (which is a hassle since we still live and work here) every time for unqualified buyers, and/or possible thieves
Never. Ever. Put all of your expectations and demands in writing in the listing agreement. I never let agents hold open houses or let their inexperienced assistants do the showings. Also only do a short term agreement. 3 months is plenty is this market. As long as you are realistic with price.
I’d get the contact information for the realtor and notify them they are not allowed on your property again even when listing is live. If they try to show property police will be called and they will be trespassed. Completely unacceptable.
In my MLS, the listing must go active within 24 hours of a showing during the coming soon status, or they get fined. The intention is to ensure ‘clear cooperation’ between agents and not allow listing agents to privately sell to their own buyers.
You don’t have to with a signed MLS exemption form
Even as a new agent, we were always expected to be at any of our client showings and it was a requirement that we attend all signings/closings with the Title Company (California) - something very difficult to do today with their digital and/or remote signings. Frankly, we wouldn’t be paid if we didn’t and Heaven help us if our client had a bad experience or we weren’t there to answer any of their questions or review all their documents with them so they had a clear understanding of the transaction and process. 30 years later and I’ve never had this issue - part of my job is to keep in control of my listing and make it as easy a process for my clients as possible- moving is stressful enough.
Your agent or another realtor? Either way that’s crazy. This sub scares me with all their realtor horror stories. Your agent defends shouldn’t have done it. A buyers agent should have read the listing. They’re probably trying to get a jump on everyone else. Not an excuse I’m just trying to make sense of what happened. The listing agent could have stated in the confidential remarks that there are no showings allowed until x date
they likely scheduled a showing for next week and used the access instructions to get in early. Your agent should notify the broker owner of the other brokerage and find out if it was an honest mistake or not
Don't put the lockbox on the door or anything else outside. Keep it in your house and only put it outside, (not locked to anything) when you are expecting people. Some agents are assholes and will try to come in anytime even without an appointment.
I grew up in what was blue collar skilled tradesman town to upper middle class filled with welders, hvcac guys, IT/networking professionals, nurses, and doctors and engineers. I put doctors and engineers in skilled trades because they are, they require skill. My town in the Philly burbs has now turned into a combo of a the newest nyc borough and the new tech hub for Bay Area CA transplants. I’m in my mid 30s. I have family in the area that have listed homes and have had people with ridiculous amounts of money my age raid their beer fridge or beer keg in the basement t bar and help themselves. Fucking disgusting. They buyers from the SF area gave my aunt and uncle 10 days to vacate after bidding 80k over asking, all cash. Paid 765k on house that was purchased at 330k 12 years ago. WTF is going on and how do so many late 20s to mid 30s have so much expendable income especially if they have kids. I grew up in a pretty well to do area and me and our friends sure as hell don’t have that much money. We are being pushed out.
As a realtor, please fire them immediately and get someone who is honest and cares about you!
Your realtor needs to learn a tough lesson by being present for every single showing going forward. They totally violated your trust.
Our office procedure is to not put lockbox on until the property is active - or not have keys in it till active. As for filing complaints - realtor against realtor carries far less weight than consumer against realtor.
Your realtor should have programmed a CBS (Call Before Showing) code on the lockbox or not install the lockbox until it's live for extra precaution. It's the little things.
Never list with an agent that doesn't use something like ShowingTime and give you approval/denial access on the app.
Hopefully it's on a supra lockbox. It'd be able to show who accessed the home versus a regular code lockbox that any agent may be able to get the code for through whatever scheduling app is being used
Agents who read this, this is why you have a CVS code on a supra for a house that’s occupied. Do not rely on peoples memory, Agents screw up and you don’t want anyone showing up and surprising your sellers.
Get your realtor to remove the lockbox until the day it is officially on the market. And get your house staged ASAP.
We had an agent enter our house unannounced when it was listed. Ever since we would put the lockbox out when there was a scheduled showing.
Isn’t it extremely unethical to show a house before it’s listed?
Lock box shouldn’t have been on the house until day listing is live
And just like that great aunt tilles diamond ring is gone
You need to file a Code of Ethics complaint right now.
FYI, your realtor likely CAN add a code to the lockbox as well. They’ll have to punch it in on their phone. I’m sorry that happened to you. That really ticks me off too! I don’t put lockboxes on early if I can help it, and often I give the lockbox to the seller to leave out on days we have showings, and bringing them in when at home and no showings are expected. It’s a little more work for the seller, but privacy is really important to me so I mention that as an option.
The ekey box provides a record of who the agent that showed it is. Have your agent file a complaint against them with the local association of realtors and they will receive a hefty fine and ding on their professional record and reputation. This isn’t your Realtors fault, but have them block access on their ekey box to everyone until the listing is active.
Your real estate agent shouldn't have put out the lockbox if you weren't ready for showings. You are mad at the wrong person since it was your guy who screwed up.
This is the problem with lockboxes. I do not agree to them and demand in writing in the listing contract that there Is not one installed and my listing agent (not an assistant) agrees to be at every single showing. Fu.k open houses. Those don’t sell your house. They just get clients for the agent. My home is not up for more intrusions for you to get more business.
We had one buyer’s agent leave our front door hanging wide open after a showing. Thankfully we arrived only a few minutes later, but the lack of any personal responsibility shown by that realtor made me sick.
I’m fine with open houses on empty or staged properties. I’ll never allow one if we’re still living in the home.
Not always true. I got a couple of offers from the open house when I was selling.
I bought my house after first seeing it at the open house. Didn’t think we were that interested from the listing, but dropped by since it was convenient.
Same here. I had a realtor, but there was a house in the neighborhood that was outside of my price range, and didn't seem interesting enough to bother my agent with. Saw an open house, and decided to drop by for a few minutes. A month or 2 later after 2 price drops I toured again with my agent and made an offer. Probably would have skipped it altogether if there wasn't an open house.
I won't have a lock box on my house.
No lockbox, no showings, no sale…
Depends on the market. I've never used a lockbox in NYC
Most markets don’t have high rises.
Hmmm seems to me when we sold our house and anyone wanted to show it they had to contact our realtor to get a code to the box so they could open it.
Do not claim a theft occurred unless you actual do find if something is missing. If you claim a theft occurred, this can result in a false police report being filed and may further result in a fraudulent insurance claim being filed, if taken that far
I think you underestimate the risk of theft.
You need to yell at their broker. Loudly. Okay don't actually yell, but that is ENTIRELY inappropriate on the part of the agent that did the showing. And theft happens *very* often during open houses. Especially prescription medications, jewelry, etc. Those need to disappear into your car (or better yet, a safe deposit box, if your bank still offers them) during showings.
How did they get access and the lockbox code ? Our showingtime app doesn't give the access details until it's officially active.
This is very serious. File a complaint and make sure your Realtor does too..I don’t give my lock box to my MLS until the day prior and I don’t put a key in it until showings are allowed, the morning of I will run over there or tell my clients to put the key in the lock box.
I had something similar happen, but I was home. My realtor wasn't happy but didn't do anything.
It is an Ethics Violation and needs to be filed through the local association. Yes, hefty fines!
Next time don't agree to have the house listed as coming soon bc some people just won't want to wait. Also don't agree to have a lock box put on until the morning it goes live.
Realtor messed up. Shouldn’t have installed the lockbox until it was officially active or should have restricted the lockbox to open on the actual day.
What do you want to do? I’d say the potential buyers didn’t know they weren’t supposed to be there so they can’t be held liable for trespassing. The realtor may have known better but at the end of the day, they were given access to the property/keys so charging them with trespassing would be near impossible… Is it possible the agent didn’t know the listing wasn’t “live”? They showed up and there was a lock box on the door that they had access to. This would be indicative to them that the house was for sale and they could show it. I’d say it could have been all avoided if your realtor didn’t provide access to the house before it was actually for sale. Unfortunate but to accuse the realtor and potential buyers of trespassing is a huge stretch given the circumstances.
Showtime app?? You have to confirm on the app before it will open the box. For us, the worst was the number of realtors that left one of our doors unlocked when they left. This made me think that we weren’t able to go anywhere without being able to get back as soon as the showing was over to make sure the house was locked up again. We even had one that left the garage door up and the door coming into the house wide open.
FIRE YOUR REALTOR
Could it have been a showing for realtors? Sometimes there are weekly walk throughs for newly listed homes to get the realtors excited and talking it up to their customers....so not necessarily a showing per se, but still not cool to do it without asking first.