I Screamed and Ran, Called 911.’ Three Home Showings That Went South Real Fast

Q: Have you ever feared for your life while showing a home?

Elizabeth Thompson, real-estate agent, The Agency Los Altos, Los Altos, Calif.

I was representing the seller of a townhome under contract for $1.2 million. A day before the closing, he called to tell me a window was missing. When I arrived, I found that a small sliding window was completely gone, both frame and glass. I thought that my stager had accidentally broken it and took the frame out in order to have the glass repaired. But the seller also mentioned that there was a stain on the carpet in one of the bedrooms. We went upstairs and saw a bright yellow stain next to the closet. I got on my hands and knees to smell the stain. It was not the colour of urine and didn’t smell that way. We went downstairs to discuss a solution for the missing window and then heard a bang upstairs. We went up to check, going from room to room. We finally got to the bedroom with the stain, and when I slid the closet door open, I saw an aluminium container on the floor, like the kind takeout food comes in. I looked to my left, and there was a man standing in the closet. My client and I screamed and ran, called 911 and the intruder was ultimately arrested after he climbed down the balcony to escape. He turned out to be a homeless guy with a 20-page rap sheet, but the scariest part is that when I was kneeling on the ground smelling the stain, he was about 6 inches away from me on the other side of the closet door. To this day, when I open a closet, I still have a gut reaction.

Lindsay Jackman, real-estate agent, Century 21 North Homes Realty, Gig Harbor, Wash.

I am a policeman’s daughter, and now a policeman’s wife, so I have a very thorough process to vet buyers. I never meet a stranger at a vacant house, for example, and always perform public records searches on sellers before going to a listing appointment. But I was about to take a listing on an older four-bedroom home that was used as a rental property, and the sellers were acquaintances of mine. The house had the potential to be listed for upward of $1 million, and I was fairly new in the industry, so it was exciting. I was meeting the sellers at the house for a walk-through to determine its value and whether any updates were needed prior to listing it. During the tour, I learned that the tenant was an ex-police officer with substance abuse issues and a mental-health problem. He also wasn’t paying rent. When we got to the primary bedroom, the door was closed. The seller knocked and opened it, and the tenant, wearing just underwear and a tee shirt, was standing inside the doorway, holding a gun and demanding that we leave. The seller at first tried to calm him down, but then he pulled out a gun from his waistband. The situation was unraveling, and I was petrified. I bolted for the door. I can still remember the pounding in my chest as I fumbled for my car keys. The seller came out a few minutes later, and we all drove to the nearest public place. The seller had known it would be a volatile situation, but he put me in danger and never apologised or gave me the listing. Now I have a new rule for safety: No tenants present in the house, ever.

Eli Faitelson, real-estate agent, Compass Florida, Miami Beach

About three years ago, I was working with the sellers of a single-family home on the water in Miami Beach that was listed for about $1.5 million. I got to the home an hour early to set up for a showing, and I noticed that the ceiling near the kitchen had a huge bubble in it. There was water all over the floor. The air conditioner was up on the roof, and it was leaking, so it had rotted all the wood. The sellers had been in Spain for about a month, so they had no idea what was going on in the house. I started cleaning up, and I was also playing with the AC, trying to figure it out, when I heard the water start to drip a little faster. Then the whole ceiling collapsed on my head. There was wood and AC equipment all over the floor. I was pretty close to getting really injured. I was terrified. I had debris all over me, and I was freaking out. My arm was injured, and I was in shock, but I was still able to cancel the showing.

—Edited from interviews by Robyn A. Friedman

Australia’s housing crisis will not be solved by first-home buyer incentives or tax changes alone, with leading property figures warning governments must tackle supply constraints if affordability is to improve.

Speaking at the Kanebridge Quarterly Property Leadership Summit in Sydney last week, expert project marketing specialist Sam Elbanna, property investor and fund manager Paul Miron and property consultant Karla McNeice said that a lack of housing supply remained the central issue facing the market.

Elbanna, Director of CPM Realty with more than 30 years’ experience in project sales, argued that successive governments had focused too heavily on stimulating demand rather than addressing the barriers preventing new housing from being delivered.

“The misconception is that politicians think the way to solve the housing crisis is to drive demand,” he said.

“The reality is that’s not the way. This is a supply-side problem, and it needs to be solved on the supply side.”

Drawing on his experience in project sales, Elbanna said policies designed to help first-home buyers often had unintended consequences, pointing to previous grants that ultimately flowed through to higher property prices.

Instead, he said developers were facing increasing red tape, approval delays and rising costs, which were discouraging new housing supply.

“In the absence of stock, demand exceeds supply,” he said.

Miron, a Co-Founder and Fund Manager of Msquared Capital, said the housing debate had become overly focused on tax policy while overlooking broader structural issues.

He argued that affordability challenges stemmed from a combination of factors, including planning constraints, supply shortages, migration levels and interest rates.

“No-one can be 100 per cent certain on the real reason for property prices is going up,” he said.

“The reason why property prices are higher is a combination of interest rates, lack of supply, migration, vacancy rates and maybe taxes play a role.”

Miron was critical of recent federal housing policy changes, warning they could reduce the number of new homes being built and further constrain supply that was even highlighted in the budget.

He also highlighted the importance of the property sector to the broader economy, noting that residential real estate and related industries employed more than one million Australians.

McNeice, who advises developers on sales strategy and market intelligence, said understanding buyers had become increasingly important as affordability pressures intensified.

While affordability remained a major consideration, she said today’s buyers were focused on value rather than simply price.

“People are looking for value for money,” she said.

She said buyers were increasingly evaluating factors such as transport connections, walkability, nearby amenities and flexible living spaces that could accommodate changing family needs.

“What infrastructure is going on? Can I walk to the shops? Can I meet people at the local cafe?” she said.

The panel also discussed the mounting pressures facing developers, with Elbanna arguing that many projects become financially unviable from the moment a site is purchased.

“The viability of a development happens at the moment the site is bought,” he said.

He said rising construction costs, higher interest rates and overly optimistic feasibility assumptions had left some developers exposed as market conditions changed.

While acknowledging the growing number of smaller and first-time developers entering the market, Elbanna said property development required expertise across finance, construction, marketing and legal disciplines.

“It is actually a business that requires a level of expertise,” he said.

Looking ahead, the panel agreed opportunities remained in the market despite current challenges.

Miron said property should continue to be viewed as a long-term investment and cautioned against trying to time short-term market movements.

McNeice said success would increasingly depend on identifying projects that genuinely met changing buyer expectations.

Elbanna said affordable housing remained achievable, but developers needed to deliver more than just homes.

“We can provide affordable housing in this country,” he said.

“But we’ve got to wrap that affordable housing with the things that people want.”

As Australia’s housing affordability debate intensifies, the panellists agreed on one point: without a meaningful increase in housing supply, demand-side measures alone are unlikely to solve the nation’s property challenges.

I Screamed and Ran, Called 911.’ Three Home Showings That Went South Real Fast

We asked three real-estate agents if they’d ever feared for their lives while on the job

Q: Have you ever feared for your life while showing a home?

Australia’s housing affordability crisis is being fuelled by chronic undersupply, planning delays and rising development costs, as politicians continue to focus on the wrong solutions.