Buyers Beware: You May Be Under Surveillance

Surprise, home buyers: You might be on hidden camera.

You may believe you’re having private discussions about the merits of a homeowner’s wallpaper, the ugly, orange tiles in the bathrooms, or the to-die-for bay windows as you tour a residence. But what people often don’t realize is that those surveillance cameras in the hallways may be turned on, according to Bankrate.com. And that smiling teddy bear in the corner? He may be taping everything you say.

Even the not-so-neurotic sellers often want to know exactly who wants to buy their homes, what they don’t like about them, and just how far they’ve fallen in love with the residences (useful information when it comes to negotiations), say real estate agents. And what better way to find out than to play Big Brother?

“It’s not unusual to see a camera at the edge of a playroom,” says Atlanta real estate agent Jen Engel. “But people don’t realize they’re on.”

Engel once represented a seller who used a “nanny cam” to record everything potential buyers said about the seller’s home. Engel learned of it after the property sold.

“They want to know what people don’t like,” says Engel. “They want to know if there’s an issue they’re not being told about.”

The cameras are most likely legal, although the laws can vary by state, says Indiana University law professor Fred Cate.

“It’s against the law to record someone on audio or video if they’re in a situation in which they have a reasonable expectation of privacy, [such as in] a changing room or a locker room or a bathroom,” says Cate, author of “Privacy in the Information Age.” “But when you’re in somebody else’s house with a real estate agent, it’s a little harder to argue you really have an expectation of privacy.”

For sellers, getting that honest (if ethically murky) feedback can inspire them to make changes—such as replacing that ’70s kitchen flooring or putting in new carpeting.

It can also be valuable during negotiations to know just how much buyers want the home—and how much they said they’d be willing to pay for those properties when they thought no one else was listening.

That’s why Houston Realtor® Greg Nino cautions his Re/Max Compass clients to play their hands close their vests and not say anything that could potentially be used against them—from commenting on the family pictures on the wall to gushing about how they finally found their dream home.

“I’ve had sellers actually go and spy on buyers to see if they are the kind of people they want living in their house,” Janine Acquafredda, a Brooklyn, NY–based associate broker at House-N-Key Realty, told Bankrate.com.

But Boston real estate broker Douglas Bray of Century 21 Cityside doubts that’s common.

“What’s important is if someone is financially qualified and capable of purchasing the home,” he says.

Of course, sellers may simply feel nervous about having strangers in their home, amid their possessions, and want some measure of security.

“If the home has precious works of art [or other valuables], then by all means, I think cameras are an important part of the home-selling process,” Bray told realtor.com®. “But it’s important that people be told there are cameras present. That’s just useful in making everyone feel comfortable.”

Source: Realtor.com, Clare Trapasso
http://www.realtor.com/news/trends/buyers-under-surveillance/?iid=rdc_news_hp_carousel_theLatest

Forget about terrorist, the FBI uses hidden microphones to catch shady real estate investors

I, like many Americans have known for some time that the government is spying on the people by monitoring electronic communications such as email and what-not, but this is a whole new level. So apparently the FBI has set up hidden microphones in out door areas to listen on the conversations of terrorist? No. - real estate investors who might be bid rigging! Go figure. 



Hidden Microphones Exposed As Part of Government Surveillance Program In The Bay Area

OAKLAND (CBS SF) — Hidden microphones that are part of a clandestine government surveillance program that has been operating around the Bay Area has been exposed.

Imagine standing at a bus stop, talking to your friend and having your conversation recorded without you knowing.  It happens all the time, and the FBI doesn’t even need a warrant to do it.

Federal agents are planting microphones to secretly record conversations.

Jeff Harp, a KPIX 5 security analyst and former FBI special agent said, “They put microphones under rocks, they put microphones in trees, they plant microphones in equipment. I mean, there’s microphones that are planted in places that people don’t think about, because that’s the intent!”

FBI agents hid microphones inside light fixtures and at a bus stop outside the Oakland Courthouse without a warrant to record conversations, between March 2010 and January 2011.

Federal authorities are trying to prove real estate investors in San Mateo and Alameda counties are guilty of bid rigging and fraud and used these recordings as evidence.

Harp said, “An agent can’t just go out and grab a recording device and plant it somewhere without authorization from a supervisor or special agent in charge.”

The lawyer for one of the accused real estate investors who will ask the judge to throw out the recordings, told KPIX 5 News that, “Speaking in a public place does not mean that the individual has no reasonable expectation of privacy…private communication in a public place qualifies as a protected ‘oral communication’… and therefore may not be intercepted without judicial authorization.”

Harp says that if you’re going to conduct criminal activity, do it in the privacy of your own home. He says that was the original intention of the Fourth Amendment, but it’s up to the judge to interpret it.

Source: CBS SFBayArea, Jackie Ward
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2016/05/13/hidden-microphones-exposed-as-part-of-government-surveillance-program-in-the-bay-area/