Lina Robertson Jones a Realtor in Springfield MO, had an interesting story about a recent open house of hers. What would you do in this situation? And, it's also a reminder to Realtors out there to be on your toes and be safe, and you can't always go by appearances.
Here's her story... I've disabled comments so you can head over to comment on hers.
I held an open house yesterday in a beautiful neighborhood of upper end homes for our area. I wasn't sure if I would have any traffic considering it was a holiday weekend. Surprisingly enough, I had a steady stream of traffic.
When I arrived at the house, my seller told me, "We even had a guy stop by yesterday to ask the price of the home!"
Shortly after opening the home, prospective buyers and neighbors began walking through the front door. One gentleman in particular was particularly friendly but seemed to be in somewhat of a hurry. I showed him the flyers on the dining room table and invited him to look around at his leisure and feel to ask me any questions about the home.
As he hurried toward the kitchen, another couple walked through the door. After greeting them, I slowly wandered back toward the kitchen area.....just in time to see the friendly gentleman open a cabinet door, reach inside, pull out a prescription bottle, then turn and look at me. When he realized I was watching him, he immediately put the bottle back in the cabinet and closed the door.
He came back over to me and said, "I just live in this neighborhood over here, and my mother is thinking about moving to the neighborhood. I'm just looking for a home for her." He then wandered towards the master bedroom and bathroom, just as another couple came walking through the front door.
I wasn't sure how to handle this. Do I call him out in front of everyone? Do I make a scene? He didn't fit any of the personality profiles or have the appearance of someone that I would have expected to do something like this.
After a few moments, he returned from the master bath and immediately walked out the front door. I scrambled to the window to get a good look at his vehicle and license plate number. He did not sign the sign-in sheet, so I had made a mental note of the name he gave me when greeting me at the front door.
Then I immediately texted the information to my sellers. They returned to the home within 10 minutes and I asked them to check their medicine cabinets for any missing pills or bottles. Fortunately, there was only one prescription bottle in the entire home....and it was the one that I saw him attempting to take from the kitchen. When I gave my sellers the description of the gentleman and his vehicle, they said, "That's the man that came to our door yesterday."
I had just closed on a home with a local detective from the drug task force here in Springfield, MO. I called him and asked if this was something that I should report...considering he wasn't able to actually take anything. He said it was a good idea to report it, but the best thing to do would be to contact all of the other agents in the area with open houses and warn them. If he should show up to their open house and they suspected he was attempting to steal meds there, they should call him immediately. He also recommended that I contact our local board and put out a notice to all the agents to be on the watch for this particular gentleman.
When I got home, I did a simple Google search for this man's name. What I found completely surprised me. This was no bottom-scraping drug addict. This man had a wife and four children, the youngest were a set a twin girls who looked to be around a year old. He and his wife were very active in their church, and he lived in one of the most expensive neighborhoods in our area. He runs a large, prosperous, professional business in our area.
My heart sank. I knew just from reading his wife's Facebook page that this man was living with a very big secret. A secret big enough that if his wife found out, she would be devastated. I checked to see if we had any friends and common, and found only three. But as luck would have it, one of the friends is an agent that I am very familiar with and have a lot of trust in.
I called the other agent and relayed the story to him. He was SHOCKED! His wife was VERY good friends with this gentleman's wife....they were in the same bible study class. And just as I suspected, she would be absolutely devastated to know what her husband was doing. Ironically, the agent told me he hadn't seen the husband much lately, except that he had run into him at a couple of open houses. He also recalls this gentleman having a surgery some time back with a difficult recovery.
In the end, I decided to let my sellers make the decision on what to do. We agreed that we would notify our local Board and ask them to put out an educational notice to the agents to be aware of drug-seeking guests at our open houses, but elected not to put this man's exact identity out there to the agents. We have already given the information to the authorities.
Why? My sellers and I believe there are very good people who develop very bad habits. I would feel better about this situation if I could bypass ruining someone's life and provide some help instead. The other agent and his wife have agreed to visit this family and sit down with them and explain what has happened, and that we have the information, but would be willing to drop it if he will go get some help. In the long run, I believe that would be more beneficial to him and his family than catching him in some elaborate, public open house scheme.
The choice is his now. I hope he chooses wisely, for his sake....and his family.
Ozark, MO, 65721About the author: I am full-time REALTOR® with RE/MAX Solutions in Springfield, MO, and a member of the Greater Springfield Board of REALTORS®. I have helped hundreds of families in the Springfield, Nixa, Republic and Ozark real estate markets, whether buying a home, or selling a home. Visit my website at www.ozarks-realestate.com to search for All Springfield MO Area MLS listings. Want to know what our market is like? My website is also an excellent resource for current Springfield MO Area Real Estate Market Reports, as well as current market reports for Ozark, Nixa, Republic, and Rogersville.
