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Should I Turn Off The Lights or Leave Them on After Showing a Home?

admin — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 20:13:23 +0000

There are few good resources out there that dive into some basic situations that real estate agents run into everyday. As part of this blog, I’m planning to dive into some real world situations that real estate agents face in their quest for that commission check.

Today’s situation…. It’s mid afternoon, you show up to a house that is vacant in a rural area to show to some of your clients. As you come in the house, you notice there is a light on in the kitchen, living room, and two of the upstairs bedrooms. You murmur to yourself that the last agent that must have show this house was probably careless and left the lights on. Anyways, you are so used to turning off all the lights when a room is not in use to save some money on that next electric bill. On your way through the house, you turn off the lights one by one. You then leave the house and move on to the next showing feeling proud that you were able to save the seller a couple of bucks.

Did you do the right thing?? Nope…the correct way to handle this is to leave the lights as you found them. There is a good chance that the seller prefers to keep a few lights on in the home so it appears that it is not vacant or abandoned. They may think of the lights as an inexpensive deterrent to would-be robbers/squatters.

Assuming that the seller would prefer to keep these lights on all the time, it would probably be a good idea for the listing agent to post a note about this in the house so all agents showing the home can see it. However, many agents are not quite organized enough to take that step.

Keeping the lights as you found them is the proper etiquette in my book. Just make things a little easier on yourself and leave the lights as you found them!

Do you disagree? Leave a comment with your own opinion.

Pete Reese, Broker/President
License #01739054
Sale Pros Realty
www.JoinSalePros.com
reese@JoinSalePros.com
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Don’t Forget to Lock the Door(s)….a Cautionary Tale of What Could Happen

admin — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 20:08:15 +0000

Ok, so this post may seem a little basic for most of the professional real estate agents/brokers that read this site. But, even the most experienced, professional, and respectable real estate agents that I know can sometimes use a quick reminder about the basics.

So, you’re showing a house, talking to your clients about all the great (or not so great features), and you are ready to leave the home and move on to the next home….or maybe head back to your computer to write up the offer! In all the hustle and bustle of the showing and talking with your clients, you forgot that you went out the back slider door to check out the yard. When you came back in, you simply slid the slider door shut and moved on with the rest of the showing. As you leave, you follow the normal protocol of locking the front door, putting the key back in the lockbox, and even trying the door again to verify that it is locked. The effort was made to lock the front door, but the backdoor might as well have an open house sign attached to it because it is still unlocked.

So what could happen? Unfortunately, lots of negative things could happen from this. Here is a brief list that I have compiled of possible negative consequences:

***Keep in mind, most lockboxes keep records of the last agent to use the lockbox.

#1 – House gets robbed. You and your broker are sued for negligence and the replacement value of the property

#2 – Your broker gets an angry call from the listing agent or the list agent’s broker. Your listing broker decides that you are too careless and terminates your employment contract

#3 – The listing broker reports you to the local association for reprimand

#4 – The homeowner comes home and finds the door is unlocked. The homeowner decides that this would be a golden opportunity to recoup something that they lost or broker, and then they file a police report. You and your broker are sued for negligence and the replacement value of the property….eventhough nothing was actually stolen

So, here’s the bottom line. Just take my advice and be extra careful to make sure that ALL doors are locked before you leave. It just takes an extra minute to re-check all the doors, but it will give you peace of mind that you did not open yourself up to liability. Make this part of your routine for every house that you show, and you will never have a problem!

Don’t Be an Agentasaurus Rex (Real Estate Agent Dinosaur)

admin — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 20:00:40 +0000

An Agentasaurus Rex is a real estate agent that has failed to embrace modern technology and is living in the past. This real estate agent is a dinosaur that is wasting their time using old methods instead of taking a couple of minutes to learn the newer and more efficient ways to run their business.

The topic for today is the replacement of the standalone fax machine. Everyday I have contact with agents that refuse to learn how to use a document scanner and email to replace their old fax machines. First of all, most modern document scanners are much faster than a fax machine. It just takes a minute to scan a multi-page document in your scanner. Using a standalone fax machine is an exhaustively slow process, the may drive you to pull out whatever hair you have let. Second, if you scan your documents, then you will have a pdf copy that will also be stored on your computer for future reference. Next, all you have to do is attach it to an email and send it over to the recipient. Hopefully you can understand the importance and usefulness of a document scanner.

I personally own a few Fujitsu ScanSnap document scanners that we use at the office. I even have one that I can hook up to my laptop on the road that doesn’t require its own power cord. I tell anyone who will listen that a decent document scanner is a critical tool for their real estate business. Buy one, start using it, and you will become just as enthusiastic about this as I am.

So, what happens if your client (or an Agentasaurus Rex) wants you to fax them??? Or, they insist on faxing you something? Due to these issues, it is still necessary to have your own fax number. However, I use an online service that provides me my own local fax number and emails me a pdf of any faxes that I receive. I can also log into the website and upload some files that I want to fax out. The service that I currently recommend for this is www.Fax87.com I have used a couple different fax services like this over the years, but I currently pay less than $10 a month (paid in one annual payment) for this service that has worked really well for me. Keep in mind that there are many similar companies and services that you can find on the internet, so do a little research and sign up for the best plan for you!

I hope I haven’t offended anyone out there. If I did, you can let me have it in the comment section!!

Ooops!!! I Still Have A Key In My Pocket From A House I Showed Today!!

admin — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 19:55:00 +0000

So you’re out to dinner with your family, you reach in your pocket and you notice a loose key. Then you figure out that this key belongs to a house that you showed earlier in the day, but you forgot to put it back in the lockbox. “Oh S…..,” you exclaim. You may immediately think to yourself, “I’ll just wait until tomorrow…no big deal”, or “I’m sure the key was replaced by now…”. In my opinion, there is no grey are on this one. The only right thing to do is get back over to the house as quickly as possible to return the key to its lockbox. Although this may be terribly inconvenient, there is no sense in crying about it at this point….you made the mistake, now its time to make up for it!

If you are struggling with the proper way to handle the situation, I recommend you that you take a step back and think about it for a minute. If you have been in real estate for any length of time, you can probably remember taking some clients to a home that they wanted to see, but when you opened up the lockbox, there was no key to be found!! I’m sure this was very frustrating to you and your clients.

When contemplating whether you should put the key back now (or ever), just do the right thing. It was your fault that the key went home with you in your pocket. Now is the chance to correct the situation so it doesn’t have a chain reaction of messing things up for others as well. If you just decide to throw out the key, and forget about it, then shame on you. You are definitely not the type of agent that I want to be working with.