Realtor Safety Facts

As a real estate agent, you are often asked by complete strangers to visit vacant properties. What better scenario for a violent attack than this one?
You can ask all the right questions, try to figure out their true motivations, but at the end of the day, you must take people out in order to make a sale, and the truth is that no matter how many questions you asked, this people are still strangers.
Recent statistics show a staggering rate of violent crimes amongst Realtors showing properties. Crime typically goes up when an economic crisis hits.
One in four Realtors has personally experienced incidents or harassing situations while working as a Realtor, and forty percent say they know of other Realtors who have been involved in safety incidents or harassing situations while working as a Realtor.
According to the report, most incidents reported by participating Realtors involved "open houses" or showings of vacant property. Open house concerns range from assault, robbery, sexual harassment, and theft of homeowner items such as prescription drugs. Vacant home safety concerns include threats posed by squatters, vandals, rapists and violent criminals.

What raises concerns are a number of factors including:

* Unexpected individuals who show up at an appointment
* Harassment while working alone
* Unfriendly dogs
* Unsafe property conditions that could cause injury such as icy walkways, stairs
* Threatening calls from individuals based on the agent's photo on 'for sale' signs or business cards
* Being asked to come alone to a showing

They are many tips and plans that you can follow to decrease the possibility of becoming a victim:
Never go by yourself to a showing if the possibility exists, or notify someone that you will show X property and the time and tell them you will call them as soon as ou are finished with the showing.
Stop by the office and make a copy of the driver's license and even take the tag number
Never host an open house by yourself

At AWARE, we believe that the best investment is taking the time to learn how to be aware and to spot dangerous situations so you can avoid them, and to defend yourself if the situation should arise.
This takes practice; the same way as when you learn how to drive or any other task that requires you to react in a dangerous situation. You need to prepare for it before it happens and parctice over and over so it becomes habit. You may only have a few seconds to react, but that can make all the difference.

We recommend you to see some of our seminars .It is never too late to learn

Thank you
AWARE Self-Defense