HOUSE HUMPING: The act of traveling to an open house, and then when the realtor is distracted they find an empty room or closet to have a quickie.
Ok, you’re probably thinking this never happens. Well my friends, I can tell you from experience it most definitely does. I have caught people red handed (and red faced).
I’m a rather liberal person, couldn’t care less what people do in the privacy of their own home. For that matter couldn’t care less what people do anywhere… Planes freak me out (somehow I think it could bring it down or at least cause crazy turbulence) but other than that, just don’t do it in a house I have for sale and we’ll be ok.
Still think I’m kidding? Do a little Google search on House Humping and you’ll find clubs, forums, stories galore… nothing in comparison to catching someone in the act though.
I had a couple come in to a home in an affluent area. I saw them pull up in their car together. The female entered the house but the male driving the car did not. That is far from unusual though as often couples enter homes at different times. But these guys couldn’t have been more obvious.
After roughly five minutes the male entered the home and acted as if he did not know the female. A quick glance in the main hall as we walked past and that was it. After a tour of the home I advised the female that she was free to walk around and if she had any questions to let me know. It’s important to know I was on the main floor and there were two agents at this open house. It was quite busy. I would say probably 7 people in the house at the time.
I noticed after about 3 mins or so that the couple had disappeared but that their car was still outside. All our other visitors happened to leave at that time. The house was silent. Not a peep, not even a footstep coming from upstairs.
Strange.
This required investigation. Maybe the people had left, couldn’t possibly be that quiet.
Up the stairs I crept, no way was I expecting to find what I found. To this day I can’t get the vision out of my mind. It’s not like we’re talking about walking in on Cindy Crawford here folks. The damage to my psyche is immeasurable. I didn’t even have to say anything to them. It was like a little child getting caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Thankfully because I was too shocked to say anything, don’t even know what I would have said. The just looked at me shamefully zipped up and walked out like nothing had happened. I think I must have stood there for what felt like 10min. My partner at the open house had no clue.
Point of my story, ask your agent to have 2 people at every open house. Especially if you know it will be busy. It’s important to track everyone that comes into your clients home!
