Cupid can strike at any time and any place, leaving lovers victim to his hasty and passionate call.
Unfortunately, 22-year-old real estate agent Marisa Seloff and her 27-year-old boyfriend Joshua Leal didn’t resist — a decision that Seloff has had to pay dearly for.
Joshua Leal and Marissa Seloff’s booking photos. (Photo credit: Friendswood PD)
On August 20, a concerned neighbor called 911 after noticing flashlights flickering throughout a recently sold home in their Friendswood, Texas, neighborhood. Soon thereafter, police officers arrived and began searching the premises and looking through the home’s windows.
According to a report by KTRK news, the officers quickly found the culprits on the floor in the midst of what they called a “passionate rendezvous.”
The officers questioned the couple, and Seloff initially claimed that she had just purchased the home.
But after a car search that revealed a stash of marijuana and a pipe, Seloff revealed her true identity. She was not the home’s owner — she was the listing agent for the home, which had recently sold. Her client, the home’s seller, had just closed on the home the day before. (Leal is not a real estate agent and was not involved in the transaction.)
The couple was arrested and given a $1,000 bond. Moreover, the new owners of the home filed criminal trespassing charges.
In addition to facing criminal charges, it seems that Seloff was fired from her brokerage. She is no longer listed as a Realtor on Simien Properties‘ or the Houston Association of Realtors‘ sites.
Jimmy Simien, the owner of Simien Properties, sent Inman this statement via email:
“I have been asked this week whether I would be making an official statement on last week’s event regarding an agent from our office.
“I have gone back and forth on whether I should, or should not. If I do does it make it better, or does it make it worse? I have had time to think about the best response and honestly I am in unchartered waters. So here goes.
“We do not condone the actions of an agent who entered a home, without permission, in the early morning hours on Saturday, August 20. Upon learning this from the homeowner on Saturday and independently verifying an arrest occurred with the charge of trespassing, I immediately released our sponsorship of the agent’s license.
“Subsequently, I met with the homeowner later Saturday and walked through the events earlier that day. At that point we had put the issue to rest and we were moving forward. I ask that we give the homeowner the privacy we all would like to have.
“As far as the agent goes, she made a mistake. As I said, I do not condone her actions. While she is an adult, she is only 22 and will be paying for this for a long time. I have spoken to her and I know she is very much hurting, as we all would be. It’s a hurt than none of us could ever imagine, or want for our children. I have children her age, two daughters, two bonus daughters, one bonus son, and my first inclination would be to protect them. Period. Family is important, and if you are part of Simien Properties, you are part of my family.
“The media attention this has received has been disproportionate to the crime itself. We have become a society who sensationalizes events involving sex. Why? …because it makes for a good story. Also, while she was in fact the real estate agent who gained access, she seems to be the only one being vilified in the media. Double standard for men and women when it comes to sex? You tell me.
“I just want to thank everyone for their support. We have ‘broad shoulders’ at Simien Properties and will continue to move forward and do what we do best.”
As Inman writer Teke Wiggin noted in a May 2016 story, this isn’t the first time that a listing has been used as a sort of, um, crash pad.
Two agents in New Jersey were accused of using a client’s home for their trysts — they were also allegedly caught on security cameras, according to a lawsuit filed by the homeowners, who also claimed that their listing agent overpriced their home in order to keep traffic from interested buyers to a minimum.