Telling Buyers’ Agents What to Lock — and What NOT To
It may be a surprise to home owners, but — at least in my experience as a listing agent (representing Sellers) — it’s exceedingly rare for Buyers’ agents to finish a showing and fail to lock up the home properly.
In fact, I’d say it occurs less than 1% of the time.
Even then, there’s often a reasonable (if not excusable) explanation.
For example, there were two simultaneous showings, and the Buyer’s agent thought the other agent was going to lock up the home.
Errors of Commission vs. Omission
Surprise #2: guess what occurs (far) more often than agents failing to lock a door?
The agent locks a door that was supposed to be left unlocked — like the door to the attached garage, effectively locking out the owner.
Or, the agent locks a side door deadbolt that was supposed to be left alone, and the now moved-out owner, whose only deadbolt key is in the Realtor’s electronic lockbox, can’t get in.
The solution: a quick call to the listing agent (in this case, me, this weekend) to help out. 🙂
P.S.: Explicit showing instructions usually help avoid this problem.
Unfortunately, not all Buyers’ agents track such details.
Which is why a strategically placed piece of masking tape can be an even better solution.
See also, “Buyer’s Agent Showing Fatigue: Signs That You’ve Shown A LOT of Houses Recently“; “Showing Instructions: the Good, the Bad, and the (Very) Ugly“; “Cumbersome Showing Instructions, Exhibit A”; and “Showing Instructions: “Dog Will be in Kennel, Friendly.”
