“I just got done selling a house in Shaw and can’t believe how casual and nonchalant people are with other people’s things”

Photo by PoPville flickr user Erin

This is from this morning’s rant/revel but is so crazy I’m curious if others have had similar experiences:

“I don’t know if there is something in the water in the District, or people have just lost their damn minds but just got done selling a house in Shaw and can’t believe how casual and nonchalant people are with other people’s things.

Due to my employers frenzied last minute move of me, I had moved all my stuff out of the house and moved away before it hit the market, so the house was empty but not unmonitored (I had a cameras inside watching the entire first floor and the back and front).

I had half a dozen or so people go to the bathroom in my house, a few take # 2’s and a couple people not bother to flush after they used the toilet. I mean, you are in a strangers house for 10 freaking minutes and you feel the need to crap in their bathroom?!. I had realtors come over and literally throw their food/candy/gum wrappers on the kitchen/living room floor or leave their trash/food wrappers/empty soda containers on the kitchen counter. I had agents walk out and not lock the doors, leaving the house unlocked for days, or start playing with the thermostat.

I had a prospective buyer root through my mail (while their agent stood right there) which was in a pile by the front door, take a magazine and leave with it.

I had a number of agent’s walk into the house after dark, turn on all the lights and then leave 20 minutes later leaving every light, and bathroom fan on in the entire house (those things aren’t built to run for days at a time). Um, hello…everything was off when you arrived, common sense dictates you turn it all off. My realtor was apoplectic but he can’t be there every time another realtor wants to show the house. All of this happened in the 6 weeks from listing to contract and it was a recently remodeled house listed in the high 6 figures, so it wasn’t like it was a tear down or in horrible shape or a construction zone where people could feel like they didn’t “have” to care.

Thank god for the camera. I took a bunch of video grabs and emailed them to the realtors and their bosses. I got one freaking apology out of 4 separate emails. I am half tempted to post all the video’s online so people know what kind of realtor they are signing up for.

I have owned and sold houses in 3 other places in my life, both urban and suburban and NEVER seen such shocking disregard for someone else’s property by realtors or people supposedly in the market to buy.”