If any of you are wanting to get into REO but don't really know what to expect....well, I have a story for you.
Saturday morning, January 21, 2012 I get a call from my field services agent telling me that they have gone out, secured one of my listings however, put their lock box on the front door because they didn't know who placed a lock box on the front door. Well, after a little investigation, come to find out, the lock box on the front door belonged to no one....it was a rogue lock box. None the less, I call my field agent back, tell her I am heading out to do my personal property evaluation and that I would cut the front lock box off and move her lock box to the front door. For some reason, her team doesn't carry bolt cutters on them...but, I DO!
Well, it's a busy Saturday morning, people are everywhere in this neighborhood, walking dogs, doing some yard work...you get the idea. In fact, the neighbors angry little miniature overweight dachshund was harassing me the moment I drove in the drive of my property. None the less, I get out of my car, open the trunk, grab my bolt cutters, walk up to the front door and cut the lock box off. My partner walks around to the back, opens the back door (with the key), walks to the front door through the house and lets me in. Well, I grab my camera, start walking through the home, taking pictures. As I walk into the master bedroom upstairs, I hear a booming voice yell, "HANDS UP, STEP OUT OF THE HOUSE, KEEP YOUR HANDS UP". I look out the Master Bedroom door and I see my partner with his hands up, walking down the steps. He is telling the officers at the door that he is with me, the Realtor and we are doing a personal property evaluation. Well the officers sees me step out of the bedroom, orders me to put my hands up and to walk out of the house. Now...as many of you know, I have my conceal carry permit and the first thing out of my mouth is, "I am armed"...telling the office I am packing my gun. All of a sudden, I notice that 4....yes, 4 officers have their guns trained on me as I am walking down the stairs, out of the house. I repeat myself because none of them confirmed they heard me so as I am walking down the stairs, I am yelling, "I AM ARMED". Finally, one of the officers says, "We hear you, we see it, keep your hands up".....so, as I am walking down the steps, I am telling the officer that I am the Realtor, that's my name on the sign in the yard, that's my name on the occupancy notification on the door, and my real estate license and my ccp are in my wallet in my back right pocket. So....here I am, 4 loaded guns, trained on my chest, I have a gun on my hip....officers don't know who I am, what I am doing there and all they know is they got a call from a neighbor saying someone was breaking in......ROFLMAO!
So....as exciting as the start of the ordeal was, the end of the ordeal was actually pretty funny. As I step out on to the porch, with 4 guns pointed right at me, the officer in charge reaches for my hip, grabs my gun and ask me who I am. Now, during this whole time, no one has touched me other than to take my gun, yet.....I have now, 5 guns trained on me...so, I guess they were confident that they were in charge...lol. I tell him I am the Realtor, I am here doing my personal property evaluation and I didn't break in. Well, during this whole time, I see a officer at my car, running my plates....which by the way is a National Association of Realtors plate that says, SELL....lol, yes...it says SELL. Well, by this time, the officer at my car motions to the officer holding my gun and before I know it, all the guns are in holsters and I am talking to the officer in charge having a polite conversation about how I obviously listened in my CCP class because he was impressed that I announced I had a weapon on me and that I had my license on me. He thanked me for cooperating, we shared some jokes about how I carry 10+1, which means I carry 10 rounds in my magazine, which is it's limit and then I carry a round chambered. He was impressed and said it was smart to do so.
All in all, I ended up talking to these five officers (one I didn't see, till I stepped out on the porch, he had a gun pointed to my back the whole time. ) having a cool conversation about how I was a good steward of my CCP, I was a good steward of my weapon. They packed up and left....they only stayed with us for about 10 minutes at most.
So....just one of my experiences as a REO agent.....it's always fun!
