There is no doubt that the work day of a REALTOR® is not an average day at the office. You’ve got to manage so many moving parts within your day: juggling clients and paperwork; darting from one location to the next; and staying informed and current with market trends. Above all, you need to stay safe.
While there are infinite scenarios that could go wrong in any line of work, REALTORS® can be especially vulnerable. September is REALTOR® Safety Month and in honor of that, I’ll be discussing REALTOR® safety in two blog posts this month. Today, I’ll discuss personal safety.
There are a variety of tools and practical ways to enhance the personal safety and awareness of REALTORS®. A good start to being mindful of safety is to be alert and aware.
AWARENESS
When dealing with strangers, there is no guarantee that potential clients are who they say they are, and there is no guarantee that they will be harmless. To be clear, this is in no way meant to advocate a fearful mindset—rather the opposite. Awareness that elements of the unknown always exist is a good motivator to stay alert and be prepared.
In practice, this means:
• Meet strangers at an office or public space—never alone at the property.
• Take your own car.
• Bring someone you know or work with when possible.
• Never walk with your back to the client.
• Be aware of exits at all times.
• Try to show during daylight hours when possible.
• Cut a showing short if the client exhibits suspicious or red flag behaviors.
• Require visitors to provide a photo ID and use a sign-in sheet at open houses.
PREVENTION/PREPAREDNESS
Prevention is greatly aided by preparedness. Does your office have an established safety policy?
In practice, this means:
• Set a showing itinerary and share with your office and a family or friend.
• Use a prospect ID form and share with your office.
• Maintain a current agent ID form within your office.
• Dress for safety: comfortable shoes, avoid wearing expensive accessories, etc.
• Establish coded distress signal for the office ahead of time.
• Establish a reporting protocol.
REGIONAL ISSUES
There are safety issues that ebb and flow across the country and like all other places, the northwest has our own set of recurring safety concerns. The following are a few scenarios that have been reported to RMLS™ over the past year:
A man who calls female REALTORS® and claims he drugged their water bottle during an open house and assaulted the agent shortly thereafter. He insists they would have no knowledge of it and that he is only now calling to “relieve [his] conscience.” What to do: Hang up. Do not engage in dialogue with this man, and write down his number if it isn’t blocked. Report the incident to the brokerage manager, the local authorities via their non-emergency number, and to RMLS™.
Male “prospective client” calling brokerage offices insisting to work exclusively with female REALTORS®. What to do: Get his contact information if possible. Report the incident to the brokerage manager, the local authorities via their non-emergency number, and to RMLS™.
Persons showing up to open houses, acting suspicious, trying to get out of the agent’s line of sight and going through cabinets and drawers. What to do: Call 9-1-1, report the incident to the brokerage manager, and to RMLS™.
SAFETY RESOURCES Report REALTOR® safety issues to RMLS™. We look for trends and sometimes issue specific alerts on the RMLSweb desktop. To report an incident or safety concern to RMLS™, contact Michelle Gray at (503) 872-8059.
Remember, to minimize your vulnerability is to maximize your safety. Part 2 of my safety discussion will highlight electronic safety regarding fraud, scams, email hacking, reporting, and best practices for electronic safety. Look for it later this month!
For the week of August 15-21, 2016, these charts show the number of times RMLS™ subscribers opened SentriLock lockboxes in Oregon and Washington. Activity decreased again in both Oregon and Washington this week.
Ask Technical Terry is a series RMLS™ aims to offer once a month. RMLS™ subscribers will drive the content—submit any question about RMLS™ to Technical Terry in the comments or by emailing communications@rmls.com. Don’t be shy—we won’t identify you by name.
Dear Technical Terry:
There’s a listing I have in Hillsboro that hasn’t sold despite the low inventory and hot activity happening in the Portland metro area. I want this thing to sell! To that end, I’ve cancelled the listing on RMLSweb three times…and then created a new listing for the same property. This way, the days on market will stay low and I’ll get more eyeballs from area brokers. Why doesn’t RMLS™ teach people about this?
Hotsheet Harry
Dear Harry:
I’ve got some bad news for you—you’re doing a lot of extra work relisting your property for no reason!
On the back end of RMLSweb, changing a listing’s status to Pending, Sold, Withdrawn, Cancelled, or Expired will trigger an off-market date. If the property is relisted within 31 days of that off-market date, the listing will still show cumulative days on market (CDOM). Have a look at RMLS™ Document #1742, How CDOM is Calculated for more on this.
If the property has been off the market for more than 31 days and it’s relisted, that listing will just show regular days on market (DOM).
Here’s an idea. If your property isn’t selling (or even if it’s new on the market), try your hand at the Reverse Prospecting tool on RMLSweb. Reverse Prospecting searches for other brokers with a saved prospecting profile that matches the criteria for your listing. Check out RMLSweb Document #1772, Reverse Prospecting, and give it a try! This way, you can target your marketing efforts on those brokers with clients shopping for precisely what you’re selling.
TT:
Last week my eagle-eyed clients asked about the photo that appeared on a listing I sent them. The listing said the house was under construction, but the photo showed the exterior of the house, complete with landscaping! Was this a listing error I need to submit to RMLS™ staff or is Photoshopping really getting that good?
Those are bad examples, but RMLS™ has noticed some confusion about listing photos and just released a watermark feature in order to address the issue.
If your listing photo has what we in the biz call “virtual staging” (meaning someone used computer technology to add furniture and other decorative items to a listing photo), you’ll need to add the “Virtually Staged” watermark to the photo.
Similarly, if your RMLSweb listing is marked as Proposed or Under Construction but features photographs of an actual built house, you’ll need to add the “Sample Image” watermark to the photo.
If your listing photo features both a model home and has been virtually staged, you’ll need to add both watermarks!
My entire office staff consists of me, myself, and I. Instead of spending my day creating listing flyers in Microsoft Word, I’d rather be out in the world showing my clients some listings. Or snagging some new clients. Perhaps shopping for client gifts. In short, doing anything but wrangling with Microsoft Word! Do you have any suggestions on how I might be able to tackle listing flyers in a better way?
Sincerely, Riddled in Riddle
Great question, Riddled. We recommend the flyer module available on Realtors Property Resource® (RPR). Look for a direct link on RMLSweb under the Toolkit menu, then enter a valid RMLSweb listing number to open the flyer module in a new tab.
Data from your listing will already be pre-loaded—confirm the property address at minimum, and personalize the flyer as you’d like. Once the flyer is ready to go, select the delivery method and click “Run Report.” Your flyer will be ready to go in a jiffy.
For the week of August 8-14, 2016, these charts show the number of times RMLS™ subscribers opened SentriLock lockboxes in Oregon and Washington. Activity decreased in both Oregon and Washington this week.
Ever find an under construction listing on RMLSweb and wonder why an actual home appears in the photographs? Ever show an empty house and wonder where all the furniture in the listing photos went? We’d like to help.
RMLS™ will release a new feature Monday, August 22nd, designed to help clarify listing photos uploaded to RMLSweb. Two types of photos will now require watermarks: photos with virtual staging, and photos of a model home.
Photos that are virtually staged include furniture and other items that have been added electronically to a photograph. Under construction or proposed listings that feature an actual built house in photographs are not an exact representation of the listed property, and as such will need to be flagged as a sample image.
If you have a listing with either or both of these features, you can set the watermark(s) in Listing Load on RMLSweb. Open the photo loader, and check the appropriate box(es) in the right hand corner. Don’t forget to save the changes.
Checking these boxes will create watermarks on listing photos that read “virtually staged” or “sample image,” eliminating confusion about the photographs.
Saving a photo with checkbox(es) marked permanently alters the image stored on RMLS™ servers. This means if you accidentally add a watermark in error, you’ll need to delete the photo and upload a clean copy using the photo loader.
Do note that when preparing a new listing, the listing will need to be published before the Sample Image box is available in Listing Load.
