North Shore – Barrington Association of REALTORS® (NSBAR) and their members have asked us to post the following to everyone accessing the system. They would like to remind everyone that unaccompanied buyers to showings are not allowed without the permission of the listing office Owner or Manager.
Under no circumstances are agents allowed to give codes, keys or other devices to enter a listing to a prospective buyer or anyone else to enter the property by themselves without an agent. The agent is expected to be with the buyer the entire time the buyer is in the property unless you have specific permission from the listing office owner or manager.
| Those buyers found in a property unaccompanied may be turned into the police for trespassing or breaking and entering. The agent giving out the code to buyers may be issued either a $2,500 fine or an Ethics charge for violating Article 3 of the Code of Ethics which has a fine of up to $5,000.NSBAR has been asked to post this notice by the property owners who have found strangers roaming around in their home!
Code of Ethics: Standard of Practice 3-9 REALTORS® shall not provide access to listed property on terms other than those established by the owner or the listing broker. (Adopted 1/10) |
MarioBilotas.com 
Sad that some agents will do this. Even sadder if another agent does not report this kind of problem…..
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It is unfortunate, and most listing agents take additional precautions such as adding remarks to the MLS listing sheets stating “home monitored”, or “unaccompanied showings will be prosecuted”. This influx of unattended showings comes from an increase of vacant homes, shortage of agents, and sometimes downright laziness.
Some people (buyers), however, ask to view a home without an agent, to simply be nice to their agent. (huh?)
Should a home buyer be driving around areas they like, while their Realtor is on other appointments, out of desire to view the home, but guilt of burdening their agent to be in two places at the same time, the entry without the agent may come up.
Although with good intentions, that arrangement carries risk and needs to be turned down. For 1, the buyer doesn’t carry Errors & Omissions Insurance, in case something went wrong – dog in the house bites, electric fire, neighbor calls Police….they are not authorized nor protected. 2ndly, they aren’t licensed thus held to the legal, moral and ethical standards (subject to loss of real estate license, etc) which could only lead to other potential problems.
Anyway you look at it, its a lose / lose and if the home is that great, its worth the wait. (Thanks for commenting Mark)
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