Real Estate Snippets

Carbon Monoxide Detectors

Many of you may have seen or own a carbon monoxide detector like the one shown at right.  If you haven't seen one before, or if you don't currently own one, never fear.  The State of Minnesota has ordained that you will have your very own personal carbon monoxide detector by August 1, 2008!  The new law requires that new construction residences have the carbon monoxide detectors this year, but existing single family homes can wait until August 1, 2008.  Multi-family residences and apartments will require them by August 1, 2009.

Now I haven't quite figured out how the State intends to get all single family homes to install a carbon monoxide detector within 10 feet of every sleeping room by 20 months from now.  Possibly they will require anyone who applies for a permit to also install one.  It's possible each city or town will be required to do on site inspections to enforce this new law.  Those towns who have "point of sale" inspections could require the detectors be installed at time of sale.  We'll have to wait to see how enforcement happens.

In the meantime, it's really not a bad idea to install a carbon monoxide detector now for your safety.  Since carbon monoxide is the by product of any fossil fuel burning, most homes have the potential of carbon monoxide.  Plus, the symptoms are so often confused with the flu or other illnesses, that it makes diagnosis difficult.  The real facts are that carbon monoxide is the most common cause of accidental poisoning in the US.  If you read how carbon monoxide poisons, it will be enough to scare you to the hardware store!

For apartment owners who have problems with tenants disconnecting their smoke alarms, there are combination smoke detector, carbon monoxide detectors that can be hardwired per your individual city regulations.  I would check with your local inspections department to make sure the placement is properly done.  As with smoke detectors, there will be regulations about how close to a corner, how far from the floor, etc., which will need to be met.   Product reviews have already been done and thanks to the internet you can check that out before you shop!

Identity Theft

Identity theft has been published enough that some public paranoia has been generated.  Some, like my father, shred everything including envelopes from correspondence.  Having once had our own identity stolen, we have first hand experience with the frustrations and difficulty of restoring good credit after fraudulent cards have been opened and abused.  Before the Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act of 1998 victims of identity theft had no right to file police reports or recoup damages because they were not considered the "victims" of the crime.  Prior to 1998 the "victims" were the credit agency who lost the money.  No consideration was given for those whose credit was destroyed. 

The Identity Theft Act of 1998 changed that school of thought so the person whose identity was stolen has recourse today.  The Federal Trade Commission has been appointed by this legislation to act as advocate for identity theft victims by helping them find the right agencies to prosecute the perpetrator.  No longer are identity theft victims at the mercy of the big companies who harrass them for payment of bills that are not truly theirs, but are unwilling to prosecute the criminal who opened the fraudulent account.

For more information visit the FTC websites below:

• General information when identity theft happens. 
• What identity theft is, how it is done, and how to combat it.
• Resolving specific identity theft problems.

Safety Alert

Another safety alert was issued this week to REALTORS by the St. Paul Area Association of REALTORS.  Recently a seller was approached by a man claiming to be an agent who wanted to preview her home.  Without thinking, she let the man into her house and was assaulted and raped.

This tragic occurence emphasizes even more the increased danger in selling a home these days.  Agents are being warned repeatedly to take safety precautions.  They are warned to get copies of ID before taking a client to see houses.  They are warned not to have open houses alone.  They are warned to warn their clients of safety issues.

What should sellers be aware of regarding safety?

• Strangers are going to traipse through your house.  Put all valuables in a safety deposit box or at least put them out of sight.  Put all medications in a secure place.  Most importantly, put all weapons in a locked cabinet or remove them from the home.  Put breakables away.
• The showing procedure for listed homes in the Minneapolis Saint Paul metropolitan area is designed to protect sellers.  Agents are NOT supposed to come to your door and ask for a showing.  All showings are supposed to be arranged through the listing company.  The listing company confirms a showing at the buyers' brokerage phone number instead of to the agent directly.  This verifies that the agent is licensed and not a stranger on the street.
• The electronic lockbox system protects sellers from unauthorized access.  The keypad for these boxes is registered to a specific agent or affiliate and is not supposed to be used by any other party.  Every time the keypad is used to access the lockbox, the registered user's name and time of entry is recorded.   Security procedures require the keypads be updated daily.
• Usually buyers with agents have been pre-qualified for being able to buy the home.  The buyer's agent doesn't want to waste your time or their own by taking unqualified buyers on house tours.  This reduces the risk from "looky-loos" coming in your home.
• The presence of an agent with a potential buyer provides the seller with more protection from physical harm.  The presence of an agent also is a deterrent to theft and breakage of household items.
• Conducting an open house alone is a potential hazard.  If you are selling your house without an agent representing you, make sure you have someone else in the home during your open house.

No matter how perfectly we order our lives, mishaps can still happen, but following these safety guidelines can reduce the risk.

Meth Lab

A year ago the Minnesota Association of REALTORS added the Methamphetamine Disclosure to our pile of required listing forms.  The form is amusing to me because it asks the seller to disclose an illegal activity if it was happening in their house.  Now, no self respecting crook who is worthy of crookdom should acknowledge there has been a meth lab in their home if they haven't already been busted.  But that's what the form requires.

It was my privilege this week to show my first "meth lab" house.  Obviously the house had been gutted, sealed, reinsulated, re-sheetrocked, etc.  It had been re-tested and came up clean as a whistle.  There would be no problem for the next owner from any undisclosed drug substances.  They were all gone.

The neighborhood didn't concern me either.  As is often the case, this little house was nestled in a quiet neighborhood with well cultivated yards on either side.  The people next door probably had no clue until the traffic started and the cops finally came.

My concern for my buyer client, however, was what happens if they buy the house and a few weeks after possession, some drug needy person comes to the door looking for a source?  Rational people accept a no, but sometimes drugs make people irrational.  If this is their last resort for getting what they need, will they accept that the new owners know nothing about the former owner and his drugs?  This is one of those things that I discuss with my clients.  If they're willing to knowingly take the risk, then we go forward.  At least they have been warned of the potential for unsavory confrontation in the future.

Lock Safety Again

In my property management days, landlord seminars were offered to teach tenant management.  For the uninitiated, property management really is tenant management.  The property is easy to take care of.  The tenants are usually what get the owner/manager down.  The portfolio I managed had some pretty tough properties in marginal to scary neighborhoods.  Tricks of the trade became survival for me.  Those tricks have been passed on to my new investors and some apply to homeowners as well.  The following is one such tidbit.

Have you ever looked at how a lockset and strike plate are installed?  The lockset goes through the door and the strike plate is placed on the door jamb to reinforce where the latch bolt engages to prevent the door from opening.  It's a great system with an overlooked weakness.  There are itty bitty screws that hold the strike plate into the jamb, usually about 1/2" long.  If the door is swiftly kicked, the strike plate screws easily cave into the pressure allowing easy entry.  The truth of this has been demonstrated many times when I show distressed or rental properties.  Many of them have cracked jambs at the strike plate area.

The solution is so easy, it should be standard procedure for all homes: LOOOONNNNGGGG screws.  The police department recommended 3" screws or a length long enough to get beyond the door frame into the 2x4 or 2x6 of the framing wood on the house.  The screws should be tempered so they don't sheer easily and flat head so they function as the itty bitty ones do to allow the door to smoothly close.  Such a simple solution.  Who "woulda thought"? 

Lock Safety

Another blogger, Chris Little, posted an excellent piece on lock safety.  It was a good reminder to buyers that it's wise to change your locks or have them re-keyed after you take possession of your new home.  When I read the post, I smiled.  The home I currently live in was owned by a former client of mine.  He was an efficient person and eventually owned 3 properties on the same block: a small apartment building and 2 single family homes.  He didn't believe in large key rings.  My husband and I purchased the 5 unit building and the small Victorian home.  At the closing table, my former client pushed a bank bag of keys across the table to us and deadpanned to us with a wink.  "The red ones are the master keys.  They open every door for every property I own, and there are a couple people in the neighborhood who have had possession of these keys.  You might want to change the locks."  I was flabbergasted.  It's not unusual for landlords to master key their buildings, but to have a personal residence mastered to the same key is not common.  My former client carried one key for these 3 properties and his farm up north.  Because he had been in Bosnia the prior 2 years, he had left the master key with a couple neighbors who watched his properties.  He was not sure all the keys had been returned and thus the warning!  Needless to say the locksmith met us at our new property the day we moved in!

REALTOR Safety

Violent crime to individuals seems to be increasing.  Regrettably, real estate agents have become the target of personal attacks in recent years as well.  The public often doesn't think about a REALTOR'S vulnerability on the job, but WE do!  More and more security procedures are being initiated by both genders.  Safeguards include:

• Have the first meeting with a prospective client in the office.
• Copy the prospect's driver's license for identification purposes.
• Conduct open houses with a relative or colleague.
• Leave a showing itinerary and client's contact info with a trusted person when showing houses.
• Phone check in at beginning and end of appointments.
• Never show a vacant house to a prospect you haven't met unless accompanied by someone.
• Do a criminal check on the prospect.
• Trust your gut instincts!

The latest report I heard was not local to Minnesota.  It involved a male REALTOR who met a couple at a house under the guise of wanting to see the house.  The couple kidnapped him at gunpoint, stole his keypad for the electronic lockbox entry, and threatened to harm him if he didn't give them the keypad code.  He had the forethought to give a fictitious code, but was fearful they would try the code while he was still captive.  He was held for several hours during which his car was used for transportation.  Fortunately, he did eventually escape.  This agent posted a warning to other professionals to adhere to their safety procedures.  He had ignored his own rules of not meeting a "prospect" the first time at a house, and ended up suffering as a result.

Other dangers exist for real estate agents just because they are out in communities.  REALTORS are exposed to theft of material items (purses, cell phones, laptops, PDA's, money, cars, etc.), solicitation by drug dealers, attempted fraud, assault, etc.  I've even had drug dealers come to my window when I have been stopped for a red light!  More and more agents have taken personal safety classes as a protection against these threats.

So, when the agent you're interviewing asks to see ID or meet in his/her office the first time or comes accompanied by an "assistant', don't take offense.  As licensed professionals we are taking wise steps to protect ourselves from society's ills!

Listing Safety

I listed my own house when we sold it 18 months ago.  I, being a trained/experienced/licensed professional, knew the rules of action and the things to do to protect my home and myself during the listing time.  My husband, however, is not a trained/experienced/licensed REALTOR and acted as such one afternoon!

An unrepresented couple (no agent) called from the sign and wanted to see our house at a time I could not be there.  My husband volunteered to do the showing.  The prospective buyer was evasive about contact information which made me uneasy.  I told my honey NOT to say anything to the people and give away our reasons for moving, etc.  He got the coaching I give to all sellers in the event they are accidentally home when a showing transpires.  He's a trusting man and followed my rules explicity.  He opened the door, let them in, went outside and sat waiting for them to finish looking ALONE!  I had neglected to tell him not to let them wander unattended in the house!  When I got home and found out he had sat outside I nearly had heart failure, and then started checking to make sure things of value were not missing.

Fortunately, nothing had been taken, but it was a good lesson for me.  Letting a buyer in without an agent to act as security is not a wise idea.  Small valuable items could have been stolen or the house could have been set up for later theft.  Not to mention bodily harm issues.  What if a rapist or murderer was the prospective buyer?  Professional REALTORS have become more and more aware of these safety issues in the last few years and are taking precautions to allay the dangers.  I had never thought of the risk a seller could encounter in an unrepresented position (FSBO) as they have to be home for showings and many times another agent is not present.  It leaves the seller open to a whole range of dangers that they probably haven't even considered.

Lockboxes for Security

If you haven't shopped for a house in the last 4 years, you may not be familiar with the new lockbox system that the Minneapolis and St. Paul Associations of REALTORS have put in place.  The old system comprised a very solid key box that had either an alphabetical dial or numeric push buttons for accessing the key.  Opening the box without knowing the code was nigh on to impossible.  I know this from personal experience with a sledge hammer, hack saw, and failure to get into the box whose code I had forgotten. 

But the new system is very different.  The new lock box is electronic and requires batteries as most REALTORS learned the first time the box would not open because of dead batteries.  A most embarrassing scenario when your client is standing waiting to see their "dream" house!  There are 2 parts to the system.  The box that attaches to the house and contains the key and the "keypad" which is assigned to each professional.  The keypad is registered to a specific user and when that user places the keypad in the lockbox cradle and enters his/her code number, the lockbox records that that agent entered the house.  This information can be downloaded by the listing agent to verify who gained access.

Why is this sytem important to the consumer?  Security/safety/peace of mind/paper trail . . .  The combinations for the alpha and numeric boxes could potentially be viewed over an agent's shoulder and the "client" could use the code to enter the property later for malicious reasons with no record of who was entering.  The old system's "code" could also be given out to unauthorized or non-licensed parties to allow them access.  The keypad prevents this being done surreptitiously.  Even if the code is viewed over the agent's shoulder, one would have to steal the keypad and when the keypad was used, it is tracked to the agent owner.  When agents lose their keypads, they call their association immediately to report the loss.  That keypad's access is then locked out of the entire lockbox system preventing future unauthorized entry.  There is also a scheduled update system which deactivates the keypad when it is not utilized. The system is designed with the seller's safety in mind.

Another advantage to the electronic lockboxes is that they can be programmed to only allow access during daytime hours, i.e., only between 9 AM and 9 PM.  This prevents an agent who is late for their final showing from accessing your property too late in the evening.

About 18 months ago, an agent's keypad was stolen with the "code" written on the back of the pad. (A hefty fine is charged to any agent whose code is found with their keypad.  I don't even have mine written down anywhere.  If I forget it, I'm in trouble.)  Before the media became aware of the theft, the REALTOR associations sent an emergency e-mail to all REALTORS and their brokers notifying that ALL houses with the electronic lockboxes needed to be secured from entry.  Agents were on the phones calling their clients to chain lock or otherwise secure their doors until the listing agents could retrieve the lockboxes for re-programming.  Before the media published the theft, many lockboxes were already changed out with the stolen code "locked out" of the system.  An unfortunate situation actually ended up being handled quite smoothly although there were one or two thefts that occurred before the system wide alert occurred.