Druggies Targeting "Open House" Properties

[SecTrainer]

Those of you who work with real estate companies, and those of you who have security-related blogs, will find this article to be of interest - drug-seekers who attend "Open House" showings in order to raid the medicine cabinet.

"Staging" properties for showings is a well-known art. Get rid of that bric-a-brac on the mantle - it doesn't look good. But I'd guess that not 5 in 100 "staging experts" give a single thought to what's in the medicine cabinet (or numerous other theft opportunities).

http://radio.woai.com/cc-common/main...ticle=10132172

[Curtis Baillie]

Please...don't get me started on open houses. Well just one story.

In Arizona I had an open house. Of course, we left the property during the event only to return to find the front door standing open and the TV on. We then found that a set of house keys were missing. I know the missing keys were taken during the open house. I yanked the realtor's sign out of the yard and carried it about a block and then threw it on the floor just inside their office.

Take that Coldwell Banker!

[SecTrainer]

Been to many open houses where the realtor was more interested in guarding the plate of cookies/pastries they'd laid out (that was *their* money, after all!), and they never stirred from the kitchen table - even when there were 2 or 3 of them!

"Hi...sure...go ahead...look around..." So you looked around on your own, and you could walk right out the front door with no one even noticing that you left. You could have walked an elephant out the front door, and it certainly wouldn't have been difficult for someone to hide in a closet and wait for the realtor to lock up and leave.

The other trick is the couple viewing property with 1 realtor. One of them keeps the realtor busy and the other wanders off...

[Squid]

I've done work for a guy (broker at major RE national chain) who I later found out had done 3yr prison out of 10yr sentence for R.E. fraud, and was basically doing it again. He had been in prison, THEN gotten another RE broker job in national chain.

Fairly simple stuff...just talks people into letting him get his hands on a large check then cashing it and keeping the money and then becoming 'hard to find'.

I've also worked for a CON-tractor who was defrauding all sorts of people while with a suspended contractor's lic. I'm not talking about just poor work, but 'fraud-fraud' like forging building inspections to get money from banks and lord know what else. He had over $3million in judgments against him. Today, according to CA state contractor's board....none of that ever happened and his lic. is valid and clean as anyone's.