My very excited first-time
homebuyer met me at the newly-listed house at 7:30 am this morning.
She was sure that this REO property was
THE house, and yesterday I had urged her to meet me there before other buyers
had the opportunity to view it, and submit offers ahead of hers!
As usual, I got there early,
and retrieved the key from the lock-box. The top lock opened OK, but the key
didn’t fit in the bottom lock. I was still struggling to open the door when my
buyer client arrived, all excited and happy that she was about to see the house…..
I texted the listing agent
and was pleasantly surprised that he responded almost immediately, (at 7:30 in
the morning!):
“Yes I know… Someone broke
the key in the lock.” He texted. Then: “Sucks, there is more and more of it
happening these days”.
My client understood and told
me that it wasn’t a big deal that she had travelled for 25 minutes at that
crazy hour in the morning to meet me. Of course neither of us was happy.
Clearly agents are so
desperate to get a property for their buyers that they resort to this tactic,
(correctly), assuming that if they prevent other buyers from viewing the
property, there is more chance that THEIR offer would be accepted.
Yes, inventory is the lowest
it’s been since December 2005, and what with the lowest interest rates we’ve EVER
seen in this country, demand is higher that the supply. BUT, (this to those few
guilty agents out there – you know who you are), this is not acceptable.
Breaking keys in locks or
removing them from the premises, is not only unethical, but ILLEGAL too!
And to the listing agents out
there, what’s with these combo lock-boxes? You have no idea who last opened the
lock-box, so don’t know who the offending agent is. It’s an MLS regulation that
the electronic lock-boxes are used on all listings, so why aren’t you using
them?
It’s great to get an email
immediately after an electronic lock-box s opened, telling you WHO opened WHICH
lockbox at WHICH property, and WHEN!
Yes I’m ranting and raving a
bit, (a bit?!), but you’ll understand why when I explain that all this happened
BEFORE my first Starbucks Grande Espresso Macchiato!!
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
