This headline from National Realtor News (http://nationalrealtynews.com ) really caught my eye the other day. One of the things that the general public (and many real estate agents) fail to realize that selling real estate is not entirely risk free. Just think about it…. You get a call from an “interested buyer” about one of your listings. After some conversation the caller says he or she wants to see the house. Instinctively, many agents will make an appointment to show the property right away, EVEN THOUGH they have no idea who the caller is or if it is real buyers or somebody with other, more sinister motives in mind.
One of the first classes I had as a rookie agent was a “safety” class. Our broker required it. Personally I thought it strange, but by the time I left that same day, I had a whole new approach to doing business.
First of all, I simply do not take any buyer out to show property until we have first met at our office for a 1 hour consultation AND the buyer has been preapproved for a loan. One reason for the preapproval is that, in this area at least, there are very few sellers who will even consider an offer unless the buyer provides a valid preapproval letter with the offer. It is pointless to take the time to show property and find the perfect home, only to have to tell the buyer that the seller won’t even consider their offer, regardless of how good it sounds, because they are not preapproved (this is one of the many things we discuss in our 1 hour preliminary consultation.)
But the other reason is that by being preapproved, I know that the buyer has completed the loan application and the lender has verified all of the information provided: credit, assets, liabilities, employment, etc. That gives me some reassurance that this is a person who genuinely wants to buy a house, and that person is traceable.
Even so, whenever I take a new (preapproved) buyer out for the first few times, I always tell somebody in the office who I am meeting and where we are going, and approximately when I expect to get back. If my schedule changes, I will call the office to say so. That way I know somebody will be looking for me if I just don’t come back, and they will know who I am with and where we were going.
Similarly, an agent holding an open house puts him or herself in danger’s path, because you simply do not know the people walking through the door. At the class I took so early in my career, I learned how to take proactive steps to make sure that I was safe. Just a few of the things I learned is to never be so focused on a conversation with a visitor that you fail to notice what is going on around you, always have an exit planned, never lead the visitor around the house but follow them (in some cases I don’t even go into the room with them but stand at the door while they explore the room), keep a cell phone in my pocket at all times, preset to rapid dial 911 if needed., etc. Fortunately, I have never had any specific problems, but there have been times when all of my instincts had screamed trouble and I responded proactively to make sure I was protected.
When taking a listing, one of the things I stress to the sellers is that they should not let anybody into their home unless that person is accompanied by an agent. The agent should have called first and should present a card (preferably a photo card) before entering the house. If the person at the door says they do not have an agent, they are to call me and I will invite them to my office, make sure they are preapproved, and get them off on the right foot before they start looking at houses. I also do not let my sellers hold their own open houses (as I have seen some agents do!!). Why should they do my job? And are they really qualified to do so? I talk about the potential dangers of letting strangers into your house to FSBO’s as well.
Am I a paranoid person? Not at all! I love this business and one of the things I love most about it is that I get a chance to meet new and interesting people all the time. Still, good common sense dictates that I should at least be aware of the downsides and that I take a healthy, common sense attitude to do something about it.
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