This is my first time selling a house and I had a unknown car pull into my driveway I have no appointments today so I quickly went to check if both my doors were locked as I was approaching the back door someone was opening it it was halfway open and I ran and pushed back and locked it. The man then came to the front door and rang the bell and said he was here to see the house over our ring doorbell I told him he needs a appointment and he said sorry I didn’t know anyone was home and he left. I’m still shaking, I’m a female home alone with two kids and this is only the second day of our house being on the market. WTH!?!
Is this normal?!?!? I’m still shaking
byu/Additional_Amoeba_64 inRealEstate
Posted by Additional_Amoeba_64
29 Comments
Holy shit that’s terrifying, definitely not normal at all. Real estate agents should ALWAYS call first and most buyers know better than to just walk into someone’s backyard – sounds like you handled it perfectly by telling him to make an appointment first
Welcome to Zillow and Redfin’s down side. Sorry this happened. Have your realtor put a big note in caps on your listing. And one on your door.
Maybe you realtor isn’t responding.
We almost door knocked last month.
Both me, my wife and my realtor have been trying to get an offer put submitted for a house for over a month.
Absolutely nothing from the sellers realtor.
We have now just moved on with our search
I had someone enter my backyard when I was away and my house was for sale. It was terrifying, and I was not home, I am a big, young guy and am trained in MMA.
Sorry you went through that. That sounds so fuckin scary
Wow. You really need to relax. If I saw a house I liked I would go visit it after work while waiting for the process to play out. No intent to stalk, harass or intimidate anyone. Now I am wondering if I did.
Please talk with your doc. Buying and selling a house should be fun at some level
They are technically trespassing, and this is unfortunately more common than you may expect. When I was selling my house my realtor would set appointments with buyer’s agents, but he was not present for the showings. In the three months it took to sell, there were 2-3 unwanted people at my door from missed or unscheduled appointments. One person came on their own without an agent and was trying to put a code into my electronic door lock because the lockbox was only out during scheduled showings. About a quarter of the showings were no shows or came very late, and I would have to straighten up and be out of the house with all the animals removed for any scheduled showing.
Happens ALL THE TIME.
Take a deep breath.
Oh, man, this is why I told my mom stop walking around people’s house without an appointment. We may think it’s harmless but we could scare the bejesus out of someone inside.
Why do you leave your doors unlocked? “We live in a safe neighborhood” so what, bad things happen in safe neighborhoods all the time. If you won’t do it for yourself do it for your kids.
I had a whole family in my backyard one time. Wandering around, sitting on my furniture, peeking in windows. I came outside, and they said they thought it was “empty, lol. It was so obviously NOT empty.
Your situation is freaky, I can’t believe he was just going to enter the house.
**This is why you always lock the front door, even when you’re home.*
I didn’t know anyone was home, which is why I *tried to come in*. Have your agent find out who this guy was so that you can make sure not to sell to him.
We were renting a house once and some agent decided to go inside while we weren’t there and without warning. Then the renting agent had the gall to complain that it wasn’t clean enough. I let rip on her so much and threatened legal action and we never heard a peep again.
But I am very surprised you leave your doors unlocked.
My realtor had to lmk if someone was coming (i also had app access) and I only put the key out for scheduled visits
This happened to us MULTIPLE times when we were selling. This one time someone just rolled up and literally hopped the backyard fence and started looking around. When confronted on the Ring (we were both at work) the friggin clown was incredulous like WE were overreacting. Zillow et al are great, but it also just flings your house into the public eye unfortunately, and every once in a while you’ll get people with ZERO qualms about treating your house as if it were already sold.
Fake post. Afraid of strangers at your door but door is not locked ?! I don’t buy it.
Unfortunately some people are jerks. Obviously keep your doors and windows locked. If you don’t have exterior cameras, now would be a good time to put some up, even cheap Wyze cameras.
If someone attempted to walk into my house, even if I had left the door open, I would report them for trespassing. Get their license plate number and call police.
I would have gotten his realtors name and blacklisted him from ever seeing the house.
Oh my god, I was “that guy” at one point when I was much younger and looking for my first home. I didn’t go up to anyone’s door or park in their driveway, to be clear I didn’t trespass either but I sure must have looked like I was casing the house(s) from the sidewalk. I’m sorry you went through this!
even when I went to go look at houses if it was listed and there were no statements on the website about appointments, I just went straight to the house.
We have had people walk around our property thinking the home was vacant. It blows my mind.
Yes there will be people that show up without an appointment. Not super often, but it happens.
For less than $100 you can get an electronic deadbolt that auto locks. You can open it with a fingerprint or code as well as a key, so you can’t get locked out if you forget the key.
is it listed? when I was in the market as a buyer I experienced seller’s agent just let buyer’s go to the properties by themselves, just saying
You don’t just walk in someone’s house if they were home or not. Call the cops. He’s a thief prolly
In our area most realtor lock boxes need codes to enter. That code will identify what agent entered the code. Ask your agent if he can determine who entered the code and your house.
I had people doing the same but our house was vacant. I put in blink cameras inside and out with motion detection and told people to leave. I can’t tell you how many people checked the doors to let themselves in. I couldn’t imagine doing something like that.
I don’t know if listings can be changed from the exact address to the x00 block of Y St.
Your realtor should be coming up with a list of solutions to prevent this from happening again. That’s why you hired a realtor is to give you good solid advice on what should be done in every case that happens when selling a home. Hold your realtor accountable. Also you can put in the listing that you don’t want any unrepresented buyers. And that all potential buyers must get an appointment to see the home. There are so many things you could do to avoid situations like this. Good luck selling the home. Sounds like it’s an attractive home and it will sell pretty fast. The way people act nowadays I probably would never have an open house. It just sounds like you’re going to invite a bunch of people to parade through your home look through your closets and personal belongings and pretty much take what they want. It’s hard for one realtor to control a crowd of people in every room. So just keep that in mind if you decide that you want an open house done.
That did not happen with our house when we had it for sale. We did keep our doors locked even when we were home though. I did not leave the key in the lockbox- just put it in there when someone was scheduled to view the house.
My husband did have a couple of people approach him when he was outside doing yard work asking about the place and he told them to call the realtor to set up a viewing. They never did.
probably a realtor. have your agent post on the mls to call first and make an appt.
No way. No proof of funds/pre qual/no agent… no showing. Too many looky loos. Please keep your doors locked.