Today I got a call from someone who wanted to show one of my listings. He said the showing would be between 12:00 - 1:00 PM. I told him that I would have to check and get back to him.

I called him back confirming that it was OK to show. He asked if it was on sentry lock, I told him that someone would be home.

Well, 1:00 o'clock came and went and no one came to show the house. At this point, I became a little suspicious. His cell number was (516) 864-****. I thought it was unusual, I had recognized it as a Long Island area code, and had asked him about that. It's not unheard of for Long Island agents to be doing business in Westchester, but it is unusual. He said that he never changed the number and he is actually working for a company in Mamaroneck.

At some point during the day, I make it a habit to research agents on the MLS site and get the rest of their contact info. Unfortunately when I searched for this agent by the name he gave me, search results came back "no records found". I searched by company, no records found. 

I tried calling him back to make sure there were no other mix-ups. I reached his voicemail which gave a different last name than the one he told me. Definitely something fishy here.

Luckily, nothing happened, homeowner was home, agent never showed up, but I definitely think that something other than a showing was supposed to happen.

Is someone going around pretending to be a real estate agent and then vandalizing or burglarizing homes on the market?

Has anyone else had this happen to them? I sent an email to the MLS office in hopes that they would publicize it. Should I report this to the police? I feel that the police won't want to do anything unless an actual crime was committed.

Any thoughts?

So if you get a call like this, please be careful. And in general I am taking this very seriously with all of my listings.

Update: I heard back from the MLS office. They say that the agent does exist, though I still can't find him on the MLS database. Not sure why.