Special Response Team of the US Mint Police

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Every job has it’s hazards, and one of the ones we face in real estate is the occasional police call…  and my last one was two years ago this week.  It was an alarm.  It has happened a couple of times.

It actually happened twice on the same house on different days.  I wrote the post, and then we went back out to look at the house a second time… my buyer was pretty serious about it.  The seller had actually changed the code between our visits.  So, even though I had left the information in the lockbox (per the Listing Agent’s request) it was wrong.  The seller also didn’t bother to tell the agent that they had changed the code. Gee… thanks.

On the second call, the exact same officer showed up.  He didn’t even stop the car.  Rather, he recognized us, made a radio call and just rolled by, waving to us out of the window.  I guess we had made him pretty comfortable with us on the previous visit.

Should I also mention that the house was vacant and cleaned out?  There wasn’t much to steal… but vandals could have had a field day stripping out copper.  I understand the fears on the part of the seller, but they were actually making it difficult to show their home.

For sellers, the piece of advice I would pass along is this…  Make your house easy to show.  Communicate with your agent if you are changing alarm codes, and trust your agent to have a fail-safe code if the normal one is lost. 

 

Picture of the

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For buyers, I would say this…  Stuff happens.  Keep a cool head.  Your agent should be cool under pressure, too, but ii helps if you aren’t flipping out.  

 

And for other agents…  You are the pro.  Don’t get flustered.  Getting angry won’t help.  No person involved in this little event woke up that morning looking to pee in your oatmeal.  Stuff just happens.  If it is an alarm, walk outside, relax, gather up any papers you might need and stay in view.  Keep your buyers calm and with you. 

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