All Forum Posts by: Scott Pigman

Hello and welcome!

I am a baby investor, actually. somewhere around the lifting-up-my-own-head and the able-to-roll-over stages.

I'm moving down to around Austin at the end of the month. I'm still trying to figure out where we'll be living - it might be in a tent in someone's backyard :)

I hear there's a luncheon on Thursdays at one of the local establishments. I'll look for you.

I'm less qualified than most on this thread to comment, not that will stop me, but I don't agree that that counts as appreciation. Appreciation an increase of value over time of an asset. Property doesn't suddenly appreciate when you buy it under value. It's worth the same a minute after you close as it was the minute before, it's just that you bought smart. ("Just", ha! All of us could get rich if we could consistently buy dollar bills for seventy cents, even with moderate inflation -- which is essentially depreciation).

@George C. Maybe not a relative, but I suspect that at the very least she's a friend of a friend. The Realtor's name they gave me is a common Russian name and I'm nearly certain that the girl was Russian or at least from the former USSR — my wife is Russian and I'm pretty good at picking them out of a crowd. 

@Robert Horton @Kevin Hill I agree.

Anything's possible of course, but my agent sounded pretty upset about this too, and I've never gotten any sense that he's one to cut corners or be unethical in his own business. But you never truly know someone, so who knows.

He says he's waiting to get the list of accessors from the lockbox company. He's found fifteen realtors in the area whose first name matches the name I was given and he's given me that list, so I don't think he's hoping I forget about it.

@Rob K. I don't know if I'd have gone that far, but I wish I had asked to see their ID and taken a picture of it.

This box is made by Sentrilock, not Supra. 

I've lived in Michigan. I can believe that technology that works fine in MD might have some problems in MI.

 LOL, I was wondering about that.

I can say that my agent's view on this is in line with @Jay Hinrichs and @Joel Owens take on it.

As of this morning we're still waiting on a report from Sentrilock telling us who accessed the box. Apparently this model isn't the latest and greatest that emails the information right away.

There are fifteen realtors in this market with the same first name that I was given by the people who showed up in my living room. They couldn't (wouldn't?) tell me her last name.

This is a different topic but this is something I've wondered about. I've seen investor types talking about making a connection with a realtor to get access to the MLS and wondered if there weren't liable to be some sanctions for doing that.

Yep, what @Jay Hinrichs and @Phillip Dwyer said -- this was a realtor electronic lock box. My realtor is getting the access records. He was pretty upset when he heard about this.

The risk cuts both ways -- what if they were some sort of criminal, and what if I decided to shoot the intruders first and ask questions later.

As I understand it, each realtor has a personal code and a key card which they use to open the box. This way there's a record of exactly which realtors entered the property. My listing agent does not accompany the showing agents and their clients.