Gail,  I have heard of this happening in other parts of the country, but not in my area yet.

I do know a person who totally destroyed his home.  He went in and turned on several sprinklers throughout the house, and let them run for a week or more.  I might add that it had aleady been foreclosed on and he should have been charged with breaking and entering,  but the recording of the sale took place after the sprinklers were turned on.  He had destroyed his own property so it wasn't considered criminal.

Maybe the people in the car were thinking the same, or maybe they were trying to steal appliances?  Who knows?

Wait until you go into a home and see all the copper plumbing and wiring striped out of it,  times are hard and many foreclosures homes have been vandalized nationwide, its scary to know that some day agents may walk into a home while this is going on! ( Scary)

There is a 30 thousand sq foot commercial building that has been vacant for some time now, in Cherokee County GA that has all the copper wiring and plumbing tore out of it !!!!

Be careful out there !!!

Gail, Yes, I have had this happen to me twice. I now lock the door behind me after entering. I explain to my client my reason for doing this. I helped a client of mine buy a foreclosure in May and every time I went in that house I could tell someone had been in the house partying, empty beer cans, etc. The back door had been kicked in at some point and was difficult to secure. I got in the habit of ringing the door bell numerous times and giving any party crowd plenty of time to exit through the back door before I entered. (I always ring the door bell or knock loudly before entering ANY propetry, but gave it extra time and effort on this one.)

Yes I have been through many homes with windows doors appliances etc all gone including copper wire and plumbing. It was one of the reasons I took concealed carry course.

I have several rental properties and one of my vacant properties had all the copper taken, HVAC and even all the kitchen cabinets along with the appliances. I started talking to neighbors to see if anyone saw anything and several did see a crew doing what they assumed was a demo before a remodel. :(

Gail, I thinking another person coming in may give me an opportunity of another sale, however I think I would lock the door like Bill said, but go out and let them know I was showing the property and if they would like to see it after the current prospects that would be doable.

I have a rural property that everyone is swarming right now but to be walked in on while showing out there in the middle of nowhere, I think would be very weird, yep, I am looking into packing heat.

I've had that happen...generally it's people just driving around looking at the signs and stuff, no agent.. REO or not. And if they see someone in the house they come up and ask if they can see it.  A couple of them have told me that their agent gave them the addresses of house to go by and see what interested them. I always say..."gee..here's my card if you'd like to actually work with someone".   I let them look with me having a watchful eye on them.   We're not having all that much difficulty with break ins and removal of plumbing, etc, except in the outer areas of town where there isn't much traffic.   Things that I have seen taken in town I believe, when they are REO or HUD homes are actually being vandalized by the workers.   You can see there has been no forced entry.

Gail, your post was a good reminder for me - I usually lock the door behind me when showing a home - I  let my buyer know that "we don't want to be suprised by anyone" -

It's a little like open houses - perfect strangers just wandering in...I've never been comfortable with it...

The 'former owners' are also liable to try to gain entry to 'liberate' items from 'their house'.

Cyd, I would be careful saying "gee..here's my card if you'd like to actually work with someone" after they mention "their agent". If I were their agent, I would be very unhappy with you.

I do not like sending my clients out to "drive-by" listings but some buyers like to - less pressure. I count on fellow Realtors out there to abide by our code of ethics.

Janet Gaut

Well, here in our area, the land of transaction brokers, it's rare to find a buyer that is locked into a buyer's broker's contract. If someone is willing to just sit in their office, print out a stack of mls listings and chance it that the buyer is going to run into a sales associate that doesn't handle customers that way... oh well.  

I am in full compliance with the code of ethics.  You can be unhappy with me if the buyer chooses to work with someone who puts a more effort into finding them a home but what I have done is not 'unethical' by any means.