Securing a house during its marketing
As a buyer’s agent, I am responsible for respecting and securing a property that I show through the MLS. I am given access to a key, which I am to use and replace in a secure container. I am given instructions like “don’t let the cat out” or “leave the lights on” or “please remove shoes.” I follow those. Then there are the obvious rules that go without saying: “don’t steal… don’t snoop…don’t break anything.”
Lately, I have seen instructions that read, “Don’t give lock box combination to the buyer.” Are they serious? What agent would give out a combination to a buyer? It must happen or there would be no need to mention it.
The worst security breach situation that I know of happened in Cambridge. By the time I showed the house, the sellers were only allowing showings when they were home. They were not speaking to their agent. Why? Because their house was burglarized over what must have taken hours. These sellers went away for a three-day weekend and come back to find odd things missing. Weird things. Like empty boxes in the basement that had contained wedding presents that they hadn’t used yet. A few pieces of missing jewelry. Some liquor gone. Some video tapes gone. They were creeped out. They blamed the combination lock box on their door. What bothered them the most was that they told the agent that they would be away for a long weekend and whoever stole their things knew that.
As a seller, how do you control the access to your property? My bias is against the combination lock boxes. Once the combination is known by someone, he or she has access to your house. However, some towns have a large number of agents who don’t use the electronic pads. In those places, the extra trip to get a key can slow or stop showings (for agents who depend on a combination lock box.)
If your agent says that their town has a custom of combination boxes, at the very least demand a unique code. Make it up yourself. Tell the agent. It is not unusual for me to come upon a combination box that has the same code as it had in the store (there are standard ones from certain manufacturers.) If your agent doesn’t know how to change the code, he/she may've been using the default for years.
On the other hand, the electronic lock box systems are very secure. The code on the pad is unique to an agent. It is updated daily (and shut off daily, if the agent is no longer permitted to enter the property.) The box records who comes in and when. The box can be programmed to not allow anyone in at certain hours (unusually from bedtime to early morning.)
Sellers, have you had problems with lock boxes? Have you had problems with agents not securing your property?
