Safety should never be relegated to just one month, but September is REALTOR® Safety Month. This year marks the 10th year of the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) dedicating a month to REALTOR® safety. Every year more and more alarming (and sometimes bizarre!) stories emerge from our subscribers: robberies, creeps, and fools. Every year RMLS™ strives to give subscribers resource material to better educate and protect themselves.
Top Tips from NAR (and Me)
The following are the four most paramount tips NAR would like to pass on:
- Have office guests sign in. At the office, use a visitor log book where potential clients fill out a customer identification form. Remember to check IDs.
- Don’t disclose too much personal information online. Consider setting up separate personal and business accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites. This will help protect your personal photos, posts, and other information from people you don’t know.
- Familiarize yourself with the properties you’re showing. If you are showing a vacant house, walk the perimeter of the property before you or your client enter to look for signs that someone has been or is currently inside.
- Note your escape route. When showing a property, leave the front door unlocked for a quick exit if needed. As you walk through a house, let the client enter rooms ahead of you.
And my personal favorite tips:
- Tell people where you are going if meeting someone alone or for the first time. You can also go so far as to have a colleague call you at a certain time if you are nervous about the meeting. Mention the name of who you’re meeting and even set an estimated time of return.
- Reasonable people will answer reasonable questions. For instance, there has been a rash of would-be buyers who are offended when asked to provide proof of funds for an all-cash transaction or who become upset if you can’t meet with them under their conditions. While it’s not always the case, dramatic reactions to seemingly benign questions or comments should raise concern.
- Advise your sellers of the possibilities. Tell them to lock up all valuables, especially small items such as prescription bottles, checks, and jewelry. Even at a brokers’ tour with the most seasoned agent, someone who doesn’t look suspicious who says they were in the neighborhood and saw the sign can wreak havoc and you know the rest.
Technology. Whew, What They Can Do These Days!
In our last safety post, we discussed internet resources REALTORS® could utilize to be notified should their listings be hijacked by scam artists and posted on sites like Craigslist and even Trulia. Now you can empower yourself with applications on your mobile devices. Smartphones have become ubiquitous in the real estate industry. Safety applications go beyond just panic button capabilities these days. Some applications utilize GPS coordinates for emergency response while others offer speed dialing or automated emergency messages that go to designated numbers. As new apps become available every day, check your mobile device’s app store for the latest offers and information.
That said, still protect your personal information in case your phone is stolen or compromised. Consider installing a tracking device on your phone where you can remotely access it from a computer. Device passwords should be unique and free from obvious patterns like 4-3-2-1 or 1-3-7-9 (the four corners of a key pad). Read on at REALTOR.org for a comprehensive list of safety precautions for your valuables and yourself beyond those mentioned here.
Speaking of helpful resources, NAR has an archive of safety webinars for REALTORS® that include all they released in the last four years. Webinar topics on the archive include open house safety, online safety, office layouts, and removing dangers specific to distressed properties. This kind of information can be great to touch on either briefly at an office meeting, or NAR has a variety of full presentations available for your staff.
Trust your instincts, be aware of your surroundings, and always listen to the little voice, no matter how cliched or cynical, that says if something looks too good to be true…
Happy REALTOR® Safety Month, and if you would like to report an incident or concern regarding safety or fraud to RMLS™, please contact me at kelly.m@rmls.com.
It’s quite clear that we operate in a reasonably dangerous environment. In my opinion, the best way to protect yourself is to carry and be prepared to use a “defensive weapon”. You can call 911 all day long but before the police get there your “incident” will be all over. Either you protect yourself or you don’t. Your call? (If you aren’t capable of protecting yourself, fear of weapons etc, then you’ll be what’s called a victim.)
Where & when legal, pack!
Now that it’s getting dark earlier, I’d suggest not doing open houses past 3:00. I had a terrifying experience in December of 2010. Right before 4:00 a man stopped at my open house. I was picking up my sign in front, but told him it was fine to go ahead and see the house. I had turned off some of the lights, and the house was vacant. I practice the safety suggestions. For instance, I told the neighbors I was having an open until 4 because the house was vacant. I let him in front of me. Other people knew where I was that day. The man had a cane and seemed normal to me. Once inside the house he stood in the kitchen, a little too close to me for my comfort….and didn’t look around. I became concerned and suggested he look at the upstairs….I followed him up the stairs and that is when I noticed that the cane wasn’t a cane, but an upside down golf club. Immediately I said I needed to get something out of my car and went downstairs. When I reached for the door I noticed it had been LOCKED! I got out of there fast and into my car….he took off quickly and that is when I call the police. Don’t take any chances out there folks. a sale is NOT worth your safety or your life. Yes, this kind of thing does happen in Portland!
Val
I have been worked by 2 tag teams in an open house. While one group was upstairs robbing the seller of their prescriptions, the other group was keeping me busy in conversation downstairs. Just sayin . . . Not bodily harm, but just as bad for a seller who needs their medicine.