I am getting a little headache today. Up early, did some paperwork stuff, then went out to one of my bank-owned listings to show it to a possible buyer. Good showing, but the property had no heat or electricity, so I am still feeling a little sluggish from the cold.

Got back to the office, submitted an offer for a buyer, and started wading through the list. Hopefully setting up 2 other deals- it’s great being busy.

Then I got a call from another buyer. Woo hoo! As I was speaking with this potential buyer, he had mentioned that he had seen this property already, so there would be no need to view it. He just wanted to make the offer. I said, “Then you are telling me you have an agent?” “No,” he said, “we haven’t signed any paper with anyone.” I wanted to make sure I got this straight. “But you were shown the property already by someone?”

Then he said that he had seen more than 35 properties in the area, and the agent had merely given him the lockbox code so that he could let himself in. “Excuse me?” The agent got the codes to the lockboxes, and the buyers went out by themselves.

So, okay, I can’t see how they would have signed an Exclusive Buyer’s Agency contract, let alone a MA Mandatory Agency Disclosure form. And handing out my lockbox codes to buyers doesn’t exactly constitute representation. Just thinking about the things that could happen made me really upset. Suppose the buyers had slipped on the ice, or had fallen down the cellar stairs, or SAID they had fallen down the cellar stairs? I am just getting over the headache that had started after I was handed this little nugget of information.

It reminds me of when the kids went off to college. When the first one went, I was really upset. REALLY upset. I was complaining with tears in my eyes to a friend who had been through it already. She said, “Look at it this way. Before my daughter went off, she constantly broke curfew and we knew she was drinking and doing god-knows-what-else. Now, 9:00 rolls around, and I can envision her brushing her teeth in the dorm and getting ready for bed because she has early classes. It’s a thing of beauty, really.”

And those blinders really are a thing of beauty. I knew agents SOMEWHERE were just giving out the combos to lockboxes, but I couldn’t imagine that anyone around here REALLY was. I imagined them trudging off through the snow, flashlight in hand, shivering in the cold while their buyers poked around drafty unheated attics and dark cellars, tape-measuring the bedrooms. 

Buyers: your buyer’s agent should at least walk you through the property, jot down your questions and try to be the best connection that you have for getting the answers. I know you want to get in to see the property quickly, but your agent is being compensated: make sure they represent you!

Agents: what are you thinking?

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