This is for those sellers who have moved to their new location – in another city or state – and left behind a vacant home that is for sale. Of course, the home will have some type of lockbox on the front door so real estate agents can show it.
What sellers may not consider are the key(s) they’ve given to others, perhaps a trusted neighbor or friend. When deciding who to give a key to, please consider this story of what happened to one of my sellers a few years ago.
My client was to leave on Saturday, over Memorial Day weekend, to drive to his new state. He asked me to stop by on Friday to give my stamp of approval that his home was cleaned, ready for the closing that was to occur on Tuesday after the holiday. I gave it my blessing and he was so proud of the great job he had done. We were all set to close … or so we thought.
The buyers, who were moving in from another city, had scheduled to do their walk-thru at 9:00am Tuesday morning, then they would go to the title company to close.
Around 9:15, I received a call from the buyer’s agent, screaming at me about what a mess the home
was. It took several minutes for me to get a word in, but I managed to tell her I would come right over. Here’s what I saw:
- Plastic cups in EVERY room. Some were still filled with Orange Crush soda. Some had been used as ash trays, using the soda to extinguish the cigarettes. (thank goodness they didn’t set fire to the home!) Some cups were tipped over, spilling the orange soda on the white carpet. Several rooms had large orange spots on the carpet, including the stairs.
- The whirlpool tub had soap scum lining the sides.
- A window screen had been removed from a bedroom window and was laying, bent, on the floor.
- The kitchen counters had multiple microwave entree trays, with crumbs all around.
I was shocked because I hadn’t a clue as to what had happened between Friday to Tuesday. My client was a very nice, soon-to-be-retired gentleman, and definitely not the type to purposely do something like this. I tried to call him, but was unable to reach his cell phone.
Fortunately, a neighbor saw the flurry of activity at the home, and came to tell me that he had seen the neighbor’s teen daughter going in and out of the home over the holiday. He also saw some boys sneaking in as well. AHAH!!!! It seems my client had told that neighbor what the garage door code was so she could put his trash out on Tuesday. The post-it note with the code, was stuck on their fridge. The daughter saw an opportunity to have a holiday party!
I called the police to report the break-in and vandalism so my client could make a claim on his homeowner’s insurance. He was able to get reimbursement for the new carpet that was required when the carpet cleaners couldn’t remove the orange stains. The police took the girl, and later her friends, to juvy and they were charged with the crimes. I heard they had to spend some time in juvy-jail.
So, sellers think about this story when you decide you can trust your neighbor to “watch” your home. You may be able to trust the parents … but perhaps not their kids … especially when hormones are involved.
Oh, yes … we DID close later that afternnon … just had to hold back some funds in escrow for the new carpet.
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Wow… Who was more mad… the buyers, the seller.. or YOU?
I think a valuable lesson is to be learned here, though. Great story.
The question is, how uncomfortable were the parents of this girl when meeting the new neighbors! Awkward!
Well, BH, the buyer’s agent was the “most” mad or at least the most hyper. At that point, we needed calmness to work on the problem at hand so we could close and unload the buyer’s moving van which was on the way. Fortunately, the buyer’s agent had to leave and the buyer and I worked on a quick plan to “make it happen”.
The neighbors, with the daughter, eventually had their home go to foreclosure a few months later so they weren’t there too long afterward. Don’t know if that was tied to their legal fees or not.
Elaine – great story to share. You can never be too careful. It’s fortunate that someone didn’t set the place up in flames! Teenagers are full of mischief it seems. So glad you had the calmness on your side to work it out for the new buyers and your client!
As we were all teenagers once upon a time, we know they don’t always think with their “brains”.