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Since November 2009
Spec_Tater gave good advice. I am a broker and would want to know if an agent of mine is being careless. In my state, MI, the broker is ultimately responsible the agents actions. CALL the Broker...
This is exactly why the realtor profession needs higher standards. They should be required to have at least an associates degree.
There may actually be monetary fines in your state for this behavior. Call their broker.
Have your listing agent pull the electronic keybox information to verify time, which agent & information regarding the showing (assuming the MLS uses an electronic keybox system like GE SUPRA eKey?). Also verify they left a business card (rule in most mls). The keybox information will verify who was the last agent through (suspected agent may not be the one?). Sometimes, listing agents themselves have left doors wide open & are covering their ass blaming somebody else. Since the suspected agent won't return the phone call, phone their broker. The broker will take care of it. You may file a complaint with the local Realtor office & multiple listing service/mls about the agent if you feel you need to go further with it. I would pressure the suspected showing agent to sell the listing & all will be forgiven.
Being a Realtor (National Assoc. of Realtors/NAR) has nothing to do with professionalism since it's a closed shop & one of the largest P.A.C. (Political Action Committees) that sends out a Voter's Pamphlet to every agent regardless of membership in order to lobby laws that benefit the Real Estate Industry. In the current declining market for the last year and a half Lawrence Yun, President, would continuously proclaim that the market was fine & that it's a good time to buy, losing all credibility for NAR. Either the whole office is a mandatory member or not. Just because you can use the big "R" automatically designates you as a professional??? How can you dictate professionalism? It's all about the mandatory $400+ annual membership fee so there will be political influence. GRI, CRS, CCIM are Realtor designations and are not recognized by the state's real estate licensing division.
Call the broker. But, also allow for the fact that the agent is human - and, reckless or not - probably did not INTEND to do that. Calling them out on it will likely get them to focus on this to prevent the situation ever occurring.
I know, I give the benefit of the doubt... that's not very popular in a world like ours.
Please understand, I am not saying the agent is accountable. But, I don't know that we should burn them at the stake.
Whether the agent is human or not has nothing to with being accountable for leaving a house wide open and then not returning a simple phone call.
A meeting with the Broker should be arranged immediately.
and...
"pressure the suspected showing agent (I'll add Broker) to sell the listing & all will be forgiven." that is a good one ;-)
Start there first and you may want to give supperting data by having your agent check her keybox (if they have an electronic one) and verifying who the last agent was that entered the home.
Nevermind
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You've done the right thing - alert your agent, who in turn has gone out to the showing agent. I am borderline obsessive about checking that doors are locked when I leave a home - care must be taken, and this agent needs to be reminded of such. The fact that he/she is not returning phone calls troubles me and I would suggest that the next step is to contact the manger/broker of his office.
I'm sorry that this happened - I would be shocked as well if I came home to an unlocked door, much less a wide open one.
Be prepared for a bucket of excuses and denials rather than an apology. Our doors were left unlocked and open several times by more than one agent, and they insisted they did lock the door. Right now too many agents feel they are doing you a favor by showing your house so common courtesy is in short supply.
We had our house staged and were not staying in it much. A realtor showed our house and it was VERY obvious that children were jumping on our bed. We found crayons (part of the staging) in our bed, and both toilets had been used, and not flushed! Guess what we found out--it was our listing realtor who had shown the property to some people with "toddlers", and he knew about all this. He did not even have an excuse! Also most of the time, (when any realtor showed it), we found our screen doors open. That is certaintly not a good look! Anyway, I have decided that if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself!
find out from the agent if the people liked it - then if not report the agent. Also, if they do like it report them anyway after offer accepted.
Do you know who showed the home? Did they leave a business card? Call the Buyer's Agents Office and ask to speak to the Broker or the Manager. Let them know of this carelessness!
Contact the agent's broker and carbon copy the Realtor Association that this agent is licensed through in your state/County. There is absolutely no reason for this to occur. Also be sure nothing in your home is missing. If it is I would contact the police immediately and bring both the agent and broker into the equation.
That happend to us before we pulled our house off of the market. They left both front and back doors open. All of the lights were left on and even the refridgerator door was open. I was pissed and called my agent who in turn called the potential buyers' agent who just said..."sorry". Not long after that we took the house off of the market (for other reasons).
Since the buyer's agent has not returned phone calls, it is time to make an appointment with that agent's broker. Involve the listing agent's broker as well. Also contact the Board of Realtors for your area. As realtors, we are entrusted with people's most valued possession and there is no excuse for dereliction of duty. If a medical emergency occurred, another realtor should have been called to lock up. I just can't think of any reason for leaving the house unsecured. This realtor needs to have their license revoked.
I know we are sounding like broken records, but I agree that it is time to conact that agents broker. this could have been taken care of with an apology and some taking of responsibility in the first place.
I hope you know that the majority of us are very dedicated and professional.
As far as education, I agree that there should be more education required to get in to our industry. It is way too easy and the training is mostly done by the new agents broker, so if you have a bad broker, you will have a bad agent. I am not sure what the solution is though. All i can do is do my job well.
I would also be extremly angry if this were my listing let alone my own home! I check and double check to make sure doors and closed and locked! I would call this other agents broker and tell them what happened! They are not going to be happy with this person who is suppose to be representing the broker and his company! I myself as the listing agent would have already called the broker I wouldnt even bother calling the agent. This is a persons home! There need to be more secure practices! Check and Double Check Doors!!
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Very upset about a showing we had-
mle_mle
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Assuming our agent gets no response from this agent, what should we do? We do not feel we can or should just let this slide. We want to hear his explanation (not that there is one that could justify leaving our house wide open) and for him to realize that he needs to be more careful when someone else's house is at stake.
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