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Real Estate agents "stealing" keys from lockboxes!

Now isn't THIS just special. I went to show a corporate/bank-owned property this morning and the lockbox is already open with the keys missing!

There are 4 agents in my office who do nothing but list foreclosed properties. They tell this unfortunate story: Another agent has a buyer for the foreclosed property. The selling agent knows that it takes time for the bank to respond. So ... the agent submitting the offer walks away with the keys so that no other agent can show the property. The same thing often happens with short sales. Can't only be happening in South Florida....

Hey - remember the Realtor Code of Ethics?!

Posted by Linda Cullen on 04/22/2009 10:55 AM

Comments (4)

Ethics in the ActiveRain Channel

ethics, foreclosures, keys

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4 Comments on Real Estate agents "stealing" keys from lockboxes!

APR

Linda--this happens many times--with foreclosed properties and not....or sometimes the wrong key will be in the lockbox....whew!

Linda:

That is terrible. They should be able to trace the last person that was in the house with the history log for the lock box, at least that is what we can do with the Supra Lock Box Keys that we use.

We have not seen any problems like this in Northern Mahican. Perhaps you will have to have a duplicate key hidden somewhere else on the property.

I agree, these agents should remember their code of ethics. This type of behavior steps way over the line.

Oh my gosh, I wonder if that is what happened to a short sale listing I just took. An agent called from the house yesterday SWEARING that the key in the box wouldn't open the door! I had just put the original key in the box two days prior, and there had been 4 showings that day. I was baffled, now I'm suspicious...

Linda, I would use an electronic lockbox and keep the code for the coded lockbox inside the electronic lockbox. Unbelievable!

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