Yesterday, a real estate agent set off the security alarm for one of my listings.  The alarm went off because she didn’t have the Code to turn it off.  She didn’t have the Code, because she didn’t have an appointment.  She “thought” she had left me a message telling me she was planning to show the house.  (She didn’t.)  Besides, the published Showing Instructions require the Agent to actually CONNECT with me (not just “leave a message”).

I get that everyone (myself included) makes honest mistakes, from time to time.

What I DON’T get is that she had the audacity to say to me that “the owner really should put the code for the alarm in the lockbox, JUST IN CASE”.  I had to bite my tongue, thinking to myself, “just in case WHAT? Just in case some real estate agent decides to show the house without permission and without an appointment?”

Believe me I want to sell the house as much as any Buyer wants to buy it, and so do my Sellers.  But, it’s not unreasonable (even in this Buyer’s Market) to ask Buyers Agents to call ahead to let us know when they’re coming (especially so a homeowner can turn off their alarm).  A homeowner shouldn’t have to make their Code available for any and all real estate agents to know.

A simple “mea culpa” probably would have gone over better; rather than trying to convince me that the homeowner was at fault for wanting to have their alarm turned on for days when there are no showings scheduled.

It was no fun dropping what I was doing to run over to the house, turn off the alarm, explain the situation to the concerned neighbor, etc.

Oh yeah, did I mention that the agent didn’t even wait for the Police to arrive to identify herself and explain the situation?  She just left, and left ME to deal with the headaches.  She did assure me that they didn’t even go inside (as if that somehow made it all okay, and overlooking the fact that if she did NOT really go inside then the alarm really would NOT have gone off).