It was a pretty cute house, vacant and on electronic lockbox.  Box near the side door on the right side of the house facing the street. 

OK, that sounds pretty easy.  I meet my buyer at the house, pull out my little magic lock box opener, and wait!  I see a combination box on the rail by the side door.  And there is no electronic box in sight.

So I call the first listing agent.  On vacation.  Her message says she's in Europe until mid-June. I feel a little jealous.  Where is she?  Paris?  Rome?

Next I call listing agent Number 2.  She's out of town and left the number of the guy covering for them. 

Then I call cover guy.  No answer.  No message to welcome me to his voice mail.  When I called the office, the agent who answered the phone was kind enough to give me his email address and said he was compulsive about his Blackberry.  So I emailed him.

I felt myself metomorphizing into an angry green tinged type-A wacko agent! 

Neighbors came out and tried to find us the key that they had under somebody's door mat, but no luck!  And then, as I was about to do a type-A pollen dance, cover guy called me. 

"Look on the exterior hose bib on the west side of the house," he said.  And I couldn't find it.  He finally walked me over the phone to the lockbox location, and there it was!

Now, they forgot that there were bulbs planted all around the hose bib.  They've been growing like weeks with the Seattle style rain we've been having.  They were eating the pretty blue electronic lockbox, and it was really hard to find.

So, all you listing agents, if you want to put the lockbox in a "discreet" location, put better information in your showing instructions, like

"Bring your machete!"

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26 Comments on My Pet Peeve Of The Day!

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MAY
27
2008
122,997 Points 1 Featured Post

Thanks, I needed a good laugh before bedtime.

Too cute.

 
10:45pm • #7
1,914,453 Points 386 Featured Posts Localism Sponsor Outside Blog Attended Rain Camp Called Shot Master

Marchel, there was a legondary agent here in DC who never had a key in his lockboxes!  Made me totally nuts!

And agents who don't try out their keys first also make my nuts!
10:46pm • #8
306,008 Points 14 Featured Posts Localism Sponsor Outside Blog Attended Rain Camp

Quirky agents (and their quirky clients) tend to drive us all crazy at times..

In our Wisconsin office area, we were the first to bring lockboxes into use.  Before that, you had to call the listing agent and sometimes beg them to send over a key!
10:46pm • #9
231,519 Points 14 Featured Posts Called Shot Master

*teeth grinding* I HATE that.  Or when the listing says Vacant go show on a MLS lockbox, and you get there ready to go and it's on a combo!! And it's always when you're dealing with a REO 8-5 kinda agent, and of course, it's 5:30.  ARGH!!!

Here's my latest: Sellers calling me for the combo to the supra lockbox because they locked themselves out!  Then getting mad at me because they don't have a Realtor key to get in! LOL. After the 2nd call, that girl is getting a combo box in addition!
10:48pm • #10
439,212 Points 2 Featured Posts Outside Blog Called Shot Master

Patricia~ I hate when that happens.  It is so frustrating to get out there and the key is nowhere to be found or it doesn't work.  It makes YOU look stupid and the listing agent too. Buyers don't care for it much either!   No need for that to happen.  Time is money and gas is expensive now too!
10:52pm • #11
683,419 Points 83 Featured Posts Localism Sponsor Outside Blog Attended Rain Camp Called Shot Master

Pat~

OH...MY...you sure made me feel better tonight. After four days of plowing around acreages and fording streams...I feel gratified not to have had to hunt through the bulbs for the glimmer of a LBX...and I sure appreciate ya"...when will you compile your stories into a book ? I'll volunteer to read a rough draft, any day!
10:53pm • #12
1 Featured Post Outside Blog Hit Router Attended Rain Camp

Hi Patricia, I enjoyed reading your post. You should try selling real estate in Miami! Here most realtors in Miami Beach answer their phones only after 10am, and if you try and show property on the weekends, forget about it. The other week I called 9 Realtors to show their listings more than 24 hours before and was only able to reach 4 of them. The others never returned my call.
10:56pm • #13
2 Featured Posts Localism Sponsor

At least, you finally got in!   On one occasion, I could not get in at all.  Standing there with customers, peeping through windows ... I really had to control myself ... felt like smashing in a window ... OOPs! Did I do that ?  It was vacant, of course :)  The listing agent was on vacation and the office staff told me that either the garage door or the back sliding door should be open.  Trudging all around the house with my customers, trying to open doors ... like an absolute idiot!  As if it could not get any worse, the agent from an open house (happening directly across the road) waves my customers over, and they go!!  Consider yourself lucky.   
10:56pm • #14
322,193 Points 28 Featured Posts Outside Blog Attended Rain Camp

frustrating as this can be.... what I find even worse is when the key does not work once you find the box
11:44pm • #15
569,437 Points 1 Featured Post Localism Sponsor Outside Blog Attended Rain Camp

Why make it so hard they want us to show the property but it is at their convenience.
11:52pm • #16
531,270 Points 33 Featured Posts Localism Sponsor Outside Blog Attended Rain Camp Called Shot Master

Oh I can feel the steam coming out of my ears just thinking about it!  Its one of my top 3 pet peeves probably!  What the heck?  Whats wrong with the front door - are we worried people are going to know the house is for sale?  Is it security?  Easier to break the window then get into a lockbox........

L ckboxes placed so high - i need a footstool to reach them; on the gas meter.....50/50 chance left or right side of the house? It'll be the opposite side of the house that I go to first.....walking through wet grass.....mud.......doggy poop........poison ivy......honestly??????

Or its placed on a garage door, shed door, back fence, under the neighbours mat......someplace thats within each reach of the pitbull on a leash.......????

Or on a slope,hill..crevice......its positively perverse sometimes.......add to it 100 degree temperatures and I'm ready to tear a strip of the Listing realtor...

OK Liz take a deeeeeep breath......

 
11:54pm • #17
MAY
28
2008

And they wonder why it never gets shown?? They should have drawn a map in the showing instructions.
5:08am • #18
599,790 Points 79 Featured Posts Localism Sponsor Outside Blog Attended Rain Camp

Pat, I can commiserate with you.  If you can't show it, you can't sell it.  Why don't some agents get it?  At least it had a blue box and not a combo!
6:08am • #19
874,820 Points 154 Featured Posts Localism Sponsor Outside Blog Hit Router Attended Rain Camp Called Shot Master

I have found lockboxes in the strangest locations. Once at a condo, the agent said it was on the stair railing going down. Fine, when I got there there was 5 of them. Ok, I had to try everyone while my buyers stood there in the snow and cold. It was really frustrating...
6:51am • #20

I had a situation similar to Missy's...there were several lock boxes all lined up on a railing at a condo building and it was a fun guessing game to figure out which lockbox went with which property. Another time the lockbox was on a leg of a bench on the front porch...and I had to literally get down on all fours to open it...on top of that it was upside down and gravity made it hard to get the key box out. It's so professional to crawl around on the ground in front of your clients while they laugh hysterically...
8:06am • #21
623,614 Points 121 Featured Posts Outside Blog

All I could think to say was, "Watch out for snakes!"  What the heck are they thinking putting a l/b out of view.  Sherlock Homes we ain't!

:)

kk
9:28am • #22
112,531 Points

Isn't it just the worst when that happens??!!  A couple of weeks ago, there was one that I didn't find at all and another one had the key missing (apparently the key had been taken by the Agent viewing the home right before us, it was never returned, the Listing Agent had to get another key made, and we returned the next day to view it). 
11:49am • #23
251,962 Points Outside Blog

Patricia, "Bring your machete!" to funny. Glad you were able to find the needle in the hay stack. Hope you sold it!
3:49pm • #24
MAY
30
2008
130,235 Points Outside Blog

Pat - I have had similar experiences! It can indeed be frustrating!!!
9:27am • #25
JUN
06
2008
301,384 Points 55 Featured Posts Localism Sponsor Outside Blog

Pat - This was very entertaining. It's interesting to see what i missed while away! Been there, done that!
2:57pm • #26

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Patricia Kennedy

Washington, DC

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Evers & Company Realtors

Address: 4400 Jenifer Street NW, Washington, DC , 20015

Office Phone: (202) 364-1700

Cell Phone: (202) 549-5167

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Pat Kennedy -- author of The Irreverent Guide to Real Estate -- gives you a look at life on the streets as a real estate broker in our nation's capital. And her blog is peppered with great advice combined with humor!


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