Eons ago when my house was for sale and I feared taking a shower when I came home from work for fear someone would walk in, I would remove the lock box. I forget how that was done and I am sure lock boxes are different now. I put it back out when I would leave.

One solution would be to have a keyed doorknob and a keyed deadbolt and only place the doorknob key in the lockbox. In my current house I would have the alarm on, so an unannounced realtor would set off the alarm and have to deal with the police!

When we sold our last house our selling agent was present for all showings. The same thing would happen in my new town if I ever sold. In the price point we sold/bought both agents expect to be at all showings. The selling agent will stay in the background, but be present for further info or questions.

What did your REA say?

That is not professional at all, although it is promising that a buyer is taking a second look. :)

I would remove the lockbox except when you are gone or a showing has been set up. Your REA can show you how to do this, different lockboxes work differently but all are easily removeable with either a code or key.

Although the buyers' agent *should* have called to schedule, it really sounds like it was just a misunderstanding.

People do sometimes move, say into temporary housing, & leave their old home intact (furnishings, etc).

Now that you're back, just get with your agent to be sure that there's a system in place for making & confirming appointments.

I wish you the best.

Not calling either the listing agent or the third party appointment center is not just a misunderstanding... it is tresspassing into someones home!
This just happened to one of my listings last week and the alarm went off! The agent calls me to help her out! I did so by turning her in to the RE commission. My 87 year old seller also got hold of her and let her have it. My seller has the tenacity of a young folk!
I would not hinder your REA because of this... I would turn the other agent in... after all, she broke commission rules and the law.

Our lockboxes can only be removed by the agent that puts it there because of the coding system we use.

You can specify that the Listing Agent must be present for showing (and it will appear in the Realtor's Notes of the MLS) and let your REA know that s/he or anyone in her office can attend (whatever will give him/her more flexibility). S/he can also put in a big note "OWNER OCCUPIED - NOT vacant" for extra assurance.

And I agree, I would turn in that agent because it makes the rest of us look bad to have such unprofessionalism.

Years ago, our agent gave us the code to the lockbox and we would just take the key out of the box when we were home.

That's not possible with the modern electronic lock boxes that are in use today. They can only be opened by agents that have a special electronic key.

Thanks for all the feedback. I was going to ask our realtor about the lockbox removal options, but we sold! I didn't respond right away because I wanted to get thru the inspection without jinxing myself. It's a relief to have privacy again. I appreciate the responses because if we were still on the market I would definitely take the advice.

LauraNJ, my realtor thought it was unprofessional, but I got the sense he didn't want to do more than call it to her attention in case they did come thru with an offer at some point. I'm glad they aren't the buyers.

Ncrealestateguy, thanks for your response. I hadn't thought of it as trespassing, but you were right. I used that word when talking to my realtor and I think it helped him realize how mad I was and how seriously I was taking the situation.