So a realtor came into my house unannounced today...

[Jamie Scharbrough]

I was at work, but my husband works from home. We live in a duplex. Our landlord is awesome, but I noticed the other side of the plex wasn't moving. We have a signed year long lease. 

My husband was sitting on the couch and working (and fortunately he decided today was a good day to wear pants instead of pjs) when our front door was unlocked and a woman walked in, with a prospective behind her. 

To say my husband was stunned is an understatement. We just moved in a couple months ago, and are actually still unpacking (the joys of being bookworms), so our side still doesn't look that great. 

He asked her what she was doing and she explained she was a realtor. My husband, thinking maybe our landlord had hired a property management company to do the showings of the other unit, explained that this side was rented and she wanted the other side. 

Then she demanded--DEMANDED--to know when our lease was up. My husband told her to leave. She got snotty with him. He told her to get out or he'd be calling the police. She left and he called our landlord.

Landlord was rightfully pissed off and explained that the realtor should NOT have had a key to our side and that he'd be fixing it. 

My question, BP, is this: if the house does sell, and they want us out, can they break our lease? I'm pretty sure they cannot. I also know NC does not have the "owner or immediate family" clause. 

We JUST moved in, we have ten months left, and I'm frankly, kind of alarmed that a real estate company thought it was okay to not only just come into our house with no warning, but to think they had any right to demand information out of us. 

Besides making our landlord aware (which we did), is there anything else we can do?

I'd also note that a lot of people have been peering in our door window for WAY too long when they were clearly looking for the other side. (I timed one dude, who kept staring in for five minutes.) We put up a curtain over that window...ironically before the realtor barged in. 

Short of putting a sign up on our door, what can we do?

[Jon Holdman]

If the property is sold, the new owner MUST abide by your lease.  Leases run with the property and remain in effect if the property is sold.  They cannot just kick you out.  Though sometimes new buyers do try such monkey business.  If they do want you out, you should demand a payment for your inconvenience.  

Sounds like your landlord does have the property for sale.  Read your lease and see what it says about showing in this situation.  You should have some provision to be notified in advance when showing will occur.  You probably cannot prevent these, but you can refuse to let someone in if they show up unannounced.

If you feel you were wronged by the agent who did come in, you could call the brokerage and ask to speak to the managing broker.  Getting snotty with your husband is clearly inappropriate.