I have had a lock box on a short sale for a very long time. I showed it last early this month & the box was still there. The seller went by today & the box is gone! No one has called me, recently, for showing instructions. It's currently under B and it seems that the buyer is walking. I wonder who took it!

What does "Under B" mean?

Froy?

B is for Back-up, the seller contacted me late tonight & told me that she went to the property to check on it & someone had broken in. I told her yesterday, as soon as she mentioned the lock box was missing to re-key the lock but she did not act quickly. I reminded her today during the day and still nothing she waited to go this evening & she said all the appliances were gone. I can't believe this, my husband says that if you put a lock box you should change the code frequently, does anyone do this? I had a contract on an REO, which I represented the buyers, one day we went to check something & when we walked in we realized the A/C equipment inside was missing. A lot of agents give the lock box codes out to potential buyers and do not accompany them to the property, that goes on a lot in my area, which is horrible. Times are tough & there are a lot of scammers out there. Now, I will be more careful about the lock boxes, I have another short sale which I just received a contract on & I will go out & take the lock box off. This really stinks.

This is why our MLS generally uses electronic lockboxes, with a key in the office for out of the area agents who can't get in.

That sucks for your client.

If it's a push button lock box, know that it's not all that hard to crack the combination. Any combination of the 4 digits will open it. So if the combo is 4321 then it can be opened with 3214, 4213, 3412, etc.

I can't believe the laziness of agents giving codes to their buyers. That sucks for our profession.

Guess what, the seller just called & the scam that has been happening in South Florida occurred on this property. Someone got into the property acted as the agent, wrote a phony contract & leased it to someone. Check this out, the police saw buckets & cleaning products & then the tenants showed up saying that someone by such & such a name rented them the property, they gave $2600 cash & were getting ready to move in. I saw this on t.v. a few months ago & it happened to my listing! Unbelievable. I guess since the crooks knew these people were in & out they ran in there last night & took the appliances. Wow!!!

holy crap!

This is a perfect example of why our MLS does not allow the use of combo boxes for agent access. Our electronic lockboxes not only require the ekey to open them, but a code to release the shackle. They are virtually impenetrable- I know because someone tried unsuccessfully on one of mine once (with an axe!). It is a very unfortunate for your client to be in this situation- and also for the people who thought they were going to rent the property.