Hello and welcome. This is Nolan Formalarie with DiscoverNChomes and “Nolan’s News.” Today I wanted to talk about video and audio recording your home as a seller, particularly when potential buyers are walking through it. This is a topic we’ve discussed before. Just wanted to go over it again and the legalities of it, and as well as my personal opinion on it.
So right in our listing agreement , and this is right from our standard exclusive right to sell listing agreement on page 6 of 12, it reads: “WARNING” – in big all capital! “It may be a crime under federal and state laws to listen to, or record an oral communication through the use of any electronic, mechanical, or other device without the consent of a party to that communication. If there is a video-audio surveillance device in the property, sellers advised:
1. that no audio surveillance device may be turned on during any showings, open house, investigations, examinations, or inspections of the property;
2. that the placement of any video surveillance device should not violate a visitor’s reasonable expectation of privacy.”
So, what this is saying is: you can video, but you cannot audio record while these events are taking place! I’ve seen a number of these cameras. Sometimes I think it might be hard to turn the audio off, but explicitly says here: you were supposed to do that towards a showin.
From a buyer’s perspective – and this is what I really wanted to talk about – you need to go in, and I go in now as a broker into any listing saying: “there may be a camera in here. We may need to keep our conversation to a minimum, our reactions, things like that.” And it’s a hard way to see a house, but if that seller is recording, and if they do have audio on, even though they’re not supposed to, they will see your reaction to things. They will see the excitement, they will hear: “Oh, we’d pay full price for this house!” if they are audio recording.
So again, the thing in this video is: sellers, try not to audio record. It states it right in here, you can do all the video recording you want. And buyers, I would go into every home, every showing thinking that there may be something there, and just be cautious in what you say inside the house, even outside sometimes with these ring doorbells.
But anyway, it’s just the world we live in. I see more and more of this as I show these video and audio recording, so just again, just be careful with what you say as a buyer and sellers again, know that you’re not supposed to record audio – audio no, video recording is just fine. All right, thank you for having me. We’ll talk to you soon.
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About Nolan Formalarie
Nolan Formalarie has been in the North Carolina Real Estate Industry for over 8 years and enjoys every minute of it. He is involved in every aspect of the industry including selling and purchasing residential property, home watch services, property management, association management and construction.
