Real estate agents remind customers that they were there to spy and not buy

He contacted me and said, “There’s a house in East Hampton that I’d like to take a look at.” It held up very well, with a asking price of just under $ 3 million. But a strange thing was that she and her boyfriend specifically told me that they didn’t want a house with a pool and that this one had a pool.

Another thing that was unusual was that she brought a friend with her to see him. Most of the time when I showed her a house she was with her boyfriend. They had been a couple for a while, probably ten years.

When we arrived at the performance, the woman who owned the house had just left. The two said hello to each other, but in a very awkward way. After the presentation, we were in the backyard with the sales agent and the customer said, “You know what? I’ll just take another quick look before I leave.”

It was inside a few minutes longer than one might think to take a quick look at it. When we left, he said, “The owner of the house is my boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend. That’s why I was a little uncomfortable: I didn’t expect him to be there. “

I know a bit of background on this couple, and she’s the jealous type. She was a hair-colored client, and clients tell you a little more than they would tell someone else. I put things together and thought, “Oh, I get it now.” I had the feeling that I thought his partner and ex were still seeing each other. I had been cordoned off for her to be brought into that house to check things out. I don’t think he had any intention of buying, I just wanted to spy.

I still do hair color and go to town one day a week to do it. It keeps me in the game.

Ban H. Leow

Real Estate Agent, Brown Harris Stevens, Brooklyn

We had a listing of a co-op in Fort Greene. The seller, who did not live in the cooperative and was in no hurry to sell, had a friend who was going through a contentious divorce, with a son and a husband who wanted full custody.

Through the kindness of his heart, the salesman says to his friend, “You know what? I have a place available. Why not stay there and just pay for utilities? “

We didn’t really like it much because we prefer to show an empty property. But that was what the seller wanted, so we said, “Okay, so she knows we need access to show the apartment.”

He then receives a phone call from a gentleman who said he was interested in buying the co-op for his daughter. He says, “I won’t be able to get to the screening, but I’ll send my daughter.” We said, “Sure.” He looked genuine.

The daughter came to see the cooperative. We didn’t suspect anything until two weeks later, when we were assigned a subpoena and told to appear in court. Apparently, the “daughter” was a private investigator sent by the husband to report on the ex-wife’s living conditions. He filmed everything in the apartment. We didn’t know it, but she had a secret camera during the screening.

Because the apartment was a temporary stay and was not fully furnished, the husband used this against the mother, such as, “Our son was in a very bad situation.”

And I’m responsible because I was the agent on the list. He said there was evidence of other things: the letters he claimed were sent by a groom.

When I told the seller, it was lively. She called her husband and threatened to sue him. After this happened, his lawyer told us that we should not appear in court. But we withdrew the cooperative from the market, because who knows what else it could do?

The couple went to court and has shared custody. It’s been about a year and the seller says he might put the co-op back on the market in the spring. If people come in under a pretext, we can’t control it. We need to meet fair housing standards.

—Edited from interviews