Interesting thing happened recently. A REALTOR set up an appointment to show a buyer an occupied condo. The condo has open catwalks and construction people working on site. There is a courtesy lockbox available in case the owners are not home so the agent has to knock first and then if nobody is home use the electronic lockbox. In this case nobody was going to be home so the agent proceeded to get the key out of the lockbox, but the key was giving her trouble opening the door. She knelt down to get a better grip to open the door. When it still did not open she starts to dial my number to ask what to do and suddenly hangs up when she sees her buyer had opened the kitchen window and climbed in. The agent freaked out as the door was opened by the buyer from the inside and the seller arrived to see this all happening. When working with someone as an agent we need to set the ground rules. What happened here has caused a lot of embarrassment and additional work now for the listing agent because the lockbox is now removed and showings are by appointment only. This causes more difficulty in showing and less chance for buyers to see the home and in turn delays the process of selling. The agent and the incident were reported to the company broker manager, but there was not much that could be done about the buyer trespassing the way she did after the fact. nothing was stolen except opportunity to easily show and sell. When a lockbox or a key does not work buyers need to understand that they cannot take it upon themselves to access whichever way they feel accomplishes their goal. They must wait, reschedule and be patient. She could have been shot or gone to jail for trespassing. The REALTOR could have lost her position or even her license if anything terrible had happened. So Keep the buyers in Check. It's best for all involved.
Dealing with Financing
