Real Estate Agent Crime Prevention Strategies

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Real Estate Agent Crime Prevention Strategies
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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• The brutal murder of Sarah Ann Walker
  in McKinney, Texas in July 2006
  spotlighted the topic of violence
  against real estate agents and the need
  for real estate safety crime prevention
  tips.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Ms. Walker was presiding
• over an open house at a
• new housing development
• when she was stabbed 27
• times. A house hunting
• couple found her body
• on the kitchen floor.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• ISSUES
• Not everyone who inquires about a property
  intends on making a purchase.
• Predators can pose as a potential buyer with the
  intention of robbing, raping or murdering the
  real estate agent, or stealing from the seller's
  property.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Conducting a real estate practice almost by
  definition puts agents in potentially hazardous
  situations. An agent conducting an open house or
  showing a property is often alone and knows
  nothing about the person walking in the door.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Real estate agents have
• daily, one-on-one contact
• with virtual strangers and
• make themselves relatively
• easy targets for criminals.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Agents often meet customers for the
  first time in front of a vacant house, or
  drive or ride with them to an
  appointment.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• It is not uncommon for an agent to be alone in
  the office late at night, finalizing an offer or
  catching up on paperwork.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Agents make 71 of their sales by traveling
  alone with strangers
• to vacant properties,
• according to the trade
• magazine
• Realty Times.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Referrals are the best case scenario,
  however a vast majority of leads are cold calls.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• The real estate industry relies heavily on
  female
• agents.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Critics blame the contract labor nature of the
  industry for the dangers. Realtors don't get paid
  until something is sold. They work out of their
  own pockets and are easily tempted by the
  prospect of a quick sale, especially by an
  anxious seller or buyer in a hurry.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Scope of the Problem
• Recent National Association of Realtors Safety
  Survey

• 561,991 Realtors responded to survey
• 67 have experienced safety concerns, incidents,
  or other harassing situations.
• 25 involved in incidents while working as a
  Realtor.
• 40 knew of other Realtors involved in some type
  of incident
• 18 had no safety concerns

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• 206 agents were murdered on the job between 1982
  and 2000.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Other criminal incident occurrences include
• Sexual assault
• Non-fatal shootings
• Physical assault
• Robbery
• Car jacking

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Mitigating the Risk General Safety Tips
• Know who you are dealing with
• Potential customers and clients should be met in
  the agents office. They should be required to
  complete a customer identification form  before
  going to a property. 

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Verify their identity from references that are on
  that form
• Obtain car make and license number.
• The prospects should be introduced to another
  person in the officer prior to showing property.
• Most importantly photocopy or scan their drivers
  license.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Live by the 3 W's
•     Tell someone
• who you are with,
• where you are going
• when you will be back.
•   If possible make sure your prospect knows
  the agent has shared this information with
  someone. An office itinerary form is a
• good way to take care of this.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Keep a Cell Phone by Your Side
•     Keep your cell phone fully charged.  Call
  the office hourly to let people know where you
  are. 
• Program emergency
• numbers, 911 in
• particular, into your
• speed dial.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Car Safety
•     Always have your keys with you.  Park in a
  well lit area.  Don't get blocked in and beware
  of dead-end streets.  If possible consider using
  separate cars.  Always keep your car in good
  running condition.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Personal marketing     
• Marketing  materials should be polished and
  professional.  Limit the amount of personal
  information that is shared. Always use your
  office contact information and not your home
  information.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• To a stalker, a photo
• on a sign or in print
• can be a personal
• provocationthe ad
• may have the 'look'
• he is seeking.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Keep photos professional opposed to overly
  attractive. Home phone numbers and addresses
  give a predator everything he needs to stalk his
  prey.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Dress for Safety
•     A real estate agents image is important,
  however dress should be
• Professional
• Appropriate
• Dress for safety as well
• Don't wear expensive jewelry 
• Always wear your cell phone (it isn't very
  accessible from inside your purse).   
• Wear shoes that you can move well in

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Be a Buddy
• Know in advance who you are going to call
  when your instincts tell you to get help or when
  you need help at an open house.  Find a person
  who will serve as your buddy in situations when
  you have concerns.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Vigilance is Key to Staying Safe
• Trust your instincts They will always be
  your first line of defense.
•   

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Trust Your Intuition
• Pay attention to every bit of your intuition.
  Dont be in such a hurry that you detach
  emotionally from yourself. This initial time with
  your client is critical to your safety.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• When you feel apprehensive about a situation, or
  have a gut feeling that something isn't right
  trust your instincts.  Remember these are signals
  that something isn't right.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Have a Prearranged Distress Signal
•     An agent may be in a situation where you
  think you might need help.  Have a prearranged
  signal to notify your office of a problem.  For
  example you might call your office and ask for
  the "red file"  to notify someone of your
  concern.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Let Them Lead the Way
•     Before showing a house always have an
  escape route planned.  During the showing walk
  behind the clients.  Leave doors open after
  entering the house and any room.  Avoid showing
  attics and basements unless it is really
  necessary.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Mitigating Risks Open House Precautions
• Upon entering a house for the first  time, check
  all rooms and determine several "escape" routes.
• Make sure all deadbolt locks are unlocked to
  facilitate a faster exit.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Ensure if you were to escape by the back door,
  that you could escape from the backyard. 
  Frequently, high fences surround yards that
  contain swimming pools or hot tubs.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Place one of your business cards, with the date
  and time on the back, in a kitchen cupboard. 
  Note on it if you were the first to arrive or if
  clients were waiting.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• When prospects begin to arrive, jot down their
  car description, license number and physical
  description.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• While showing the house, always walk behind the
  prospect.  Direct them, don't lead them.  Say,
  for example, "the kitchen is on your left," and
  gesture for them to go ahead of you.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Watch what the prospects
• are doing at all times. 
• Do not become
• preoccupied with
• viewing the home.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Notify someone in your office, your answering
  service, a friend or a relative that you will be
  calling in every hour on the hour.  And if you
  don't call, they are to notify the police
  immediately.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Inform a neighbor that you will be showing the
  house and ask if he would keep an ear open for
  anything out of the ordinary.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Have someone from your
• office, a relative or friend
• stay to accompany you.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• After an open house, make sure all windows and
  doors are locked. Thieves have been known to come
  in as potential buyers and unlatch windows
• while they were there so they
• can re-enter the house later.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Mitigating Risks Discourage Predators By
  Controlling The Meeting
• The following tips and strategies can assist a
  real estate agent in preparing to avoid and
  remove themselves from potentially dangerous
  situations.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• It all begins with controlling the first meeting.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Control The Meeting
• When the agent receives a call or an Internet
  inquiry, they should don't agree to meet the
  prospective buyer at a location that isn't
  public such as a vacant house. Arrange to meet
  prospects at the office that will eliminate a
  certain level of danger.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• When they arrive, ask the prospects plenty of
  questions about themselves, and note
  contradictions or confusion in their statements.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Make the prospects fill out a form
  that includes their name, address, work,
  license number, license plate number and
  work and home phone.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• To verify they are who they say, make them
  produce their auto registration and call their
  employer.
• Photocopy their license and registration.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• If the prospect balks, or tries to rush the
  agent, or wants you to skip over steps that the
  agent knows would insure their safety and that of
  the seller's, thats a red flag.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Introduce The Prospect
• Predators give off a certain energy. The more
  exposed they are, the more nervous they will
  become. But there is another type to worry about
  - the ones who come off smoothly.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• They might be complimentary, excited about a
  property, and drop hints or make claims about
  themselves, usually indicating power or wealth,
  that will get you to believe "It's Okay" to take
  them directly to properties.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• If the agent decides to show properties based on
  the information collected, make a show of copying
  the properties the agent will be showing and the
  time the agent will be gone and putting them on a
  log-out sheet so other personnel see whom you are
  leaving with.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Physical Manifestations
• Notice if your client is sweating, pacing or
  nervous. Thirst combined with restlessness and
  impatience is a red flag because people who are
  nervous get dry-mouth.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• If the client seems to be in a hurry, don't
  fall for excuses such as "I have to catch a plane
  and only have a few minutes to see the home."
  Call the prospect's bluff, and offer to
  reschedule when he or she has more time.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Pre-qualifying prospects in the office is
  simply a good idea.
• While the agent may
• not have a predator in
• your chair, at least
• the agent can
• determine if they
• have a real buyer.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• If the agent decides to meet at the property,
  the opportunity to engage or pre-qualify the
  prospect will be lost. And if the agent
  determines that the prospect has bad intentions,
  it might be too late the agent could be cornered
  and compromised.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Mitigating Risks What To Do When A Predator Gets
  In Your Car
• Chauffeuring potential homebuyers around in
  the agents car is a great opportunity for the
  agent to get to know the client and move the sale
  along.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• But being alone with in a car is also an
  opportunity for a predator to strike.
• Make certain that the
• agent has taken the
• necessary precautions
• ahead of time before
• being in an isolated situation.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Prevent a predator's attention by demonstrating
  a safety-consciousness. Get proper ID, check
  references, get your client pre-qualified, and
  let the office know where you will be and how
  long you will be gone at all times.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Don't fall for excuses from any client that you
  should skip such procedures because he is from
  "out of town and doesn't have much time."

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Another tactic that the agent can
  do is never let clients in their car.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Choose to bring along a buddy, and have the
  client follow the agent from the office in their
  own car. Once the agent gets to the destination,
  park on the street in a manner that the agents
  car is not blocked in any way in case they need
  to escape from the home.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• The ultimately crime prevention precaution is
  to avoid being isolated - thats when a predator
  will strike.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Mitigating Risk Stay Safely Connected With Your
  Office
• Because agents are often out and about showing
  property, meeting clients at remote locations and
  running errands, it is not uncommon that agents
  are in and out of their offices. If something
  were to happen to the agent, being missed might
  take a day, or even a few days.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• The best way to stay safe is to stay well
  connected with your office. But to use the real
  estate office as a safety net, everyone
  associated with that operation has to be willing
  to adopt safety habits.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• The Real Estate Safety Council says it best.
  Always Tell someone whom you are with, where you
  are going, and when you will be back.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Each real estate office can create their own
  way of documenting where everyone is.. This can
  be done in paper form-a clipboard on a desk or
  hanging on a wall, a corkboard with a sign in-out
  sheet with designated time and locations, a
  designated e-mail address that everyone signs in
  with, or even a voice-mail box that is
  specifically used by agents to
• check in.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Agents cell phone number should be easily
  accessible to everyone in the office.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• What makes safety work is not only individual
  ability to make it a habit, but making sure that
  the prospect knows that the agents activities and
  whereabouts are accounted for.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• If the prospect knows the agents have shared
  your itinerary with the office, they are less
  likely to target you to rob or to hurt. They
  should be aware that they have been identified
  and documented as the person that the agent you
  would be at this time.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Mitigating Risk The First Time Meeting with an
  E-mail Client
• Recall the old adage, you only get one chance
  to make that first impression. Now it's an email
  that, more often than not, is the first form of
  introduction.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Safety first
• Agents meeting an e-mail client should follow
  the same precautions as they would if meeting any
  prospective client.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Safety first
• Meet people in a public forum, a coffee shop at
  an upscale hotel, or a donut shop, depending on
  the price range or lifestyle of the client.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• If, after you meet the e-mail client, they get
  any bad vibes dont take any chances the
  agent should just excuse themselves and walk
  away. Instincts are worth a lot more than the
  potential sale that may be left sitting at the
  table.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Never meet a client after hours at your vacant
  office.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• If the agent does decide to show property, let
  someone know where they will be, and when they
  are expect to return. Write it down on a piece of
  paper and hand it to them. Don't rely on them
  getting it down when they get around to it.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• When climbing stairs, always let the client go
  first, and walk a few stairs behind. Likewise
  when going down a flight of stairs, let the
  client precede the agent, and stay back a few
  steps away.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Proactive Strategies
• In addition to education and training outreach
  programs, proactive crime prevention programs can
  include

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Realtor Watch
• A partnership between local
  police departments and real
  estate offices.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Why Realtor Watch?
• Because Realtors spend a great deal of time in
  neighborhoods, they are in a perfect position to
  notice suspicious or criminal activity in or
  around the homes they visit.  The Realtor Watch
  program is designed to teach realtors crime
  prevention and proper crime reporting techniques
  to get them involved in protecting property,
  possessions ...
• and themselves.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Studies have shown that crime prevention is
  most effective when stakeholders other than law
  enforcement are actively involved.  Most
  neighborhood crime is opportunistic and can be
  effectively reduced through simple crime
  prevention techniques.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• How Realtor Watch Works The police department
  or sheriffs offices provide focused instruction
  to real estate agents in how to recognize and
  report suspicious activity, how to identify
  evidence of illegal drugs and meth labs, and how
  to avoid dangerous
• situations. 

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Once trained, agents return to work, always
  keeping an eye open for suspicious activity in
  the neighborhoods where they work. 

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Participants in Realtor Watch will receive
  e-mails from the PD or Sheriff's Office with
  crime prevention tips, personal safety tips,
  crime trends and crime notifications.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Who Benefits?
• The Realtor Watch
• program is a win-win
• situation for all.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Realtors benefit in several ways.  First, it
  is much easier to sell a home, business or
  property if the area has a low incidence of
  crime.  

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Further, agents will learn personal safety tips
  and gain a better understanding of crime in
  neighborhoods -- information that will help them
  in the course of their work.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Homeowners can gain peace of mind knowing that
  trained eyes are keeping watch on their listed
  home. Neighbors throughout the community will
  also benefit.  Because chances are, if crime is
  occurring to your listed home, it may be
  affecting surrounding homes as well. 

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• Realtor Watch decals in listed homes' windows
  and on yard signs will let the neighbors know
  that a Realtor Watch agent is selling a home.

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Real Estate Crime Prevention Strategies

• The Police Department or Sheriff's Office
  benefits through the added eyes and ears that
  agents bring to our communities. Having a force
  of trained observers in our neighborhoods will
  help make the community safer.

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BONUSReal Estate Crime Prevention Tips For Sale
By Owners

• Common sense steps to take
• Pre-screen buyers. When buyers first call to
  inquire about your home, obtain their name,
  address and phone number, and ask whether or not
  they've talked to a lender to be pre-qualified or
  pre-approved for a loan.

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BONUSReal Estate Crime Prevention Tips For Sale
By Owners

• A buyer worthy of taking your time to tramp
  through your home will gladly offer this
  information. In fact, buyers who have spoken to
  lenders are usually more than happy to volunteer
  that they're financially approved.

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BONUSReal Estate Crime Prevention Tips For Sale
By Owners

• Show your home by appointment only
• Yes, you have a sign in the yard but that
  doesn't mean that you have to open your door to
  anyone just "dropping by," especially after dark.

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BONUSReal Estate Crime Prevention Tips For Sale
By Owners

• In addition, it's best if you don't show the
  home alone. That way, if there's more than one
  buyer in the prospective group, you won't be
  spread too thin not being in all rooms at all
  times.

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BONUSReal Estate Crime Prevention Tips For Sale
By Owners

• Be well staffed at open houses
• Having too few tour guides during an open
  house can invite trouble. One often reported scam
  is for couples posing as buyers to head in
  different directions. The female goes straight to
  the kitchen, the male goes to check out if the
  antique bed they have will fit in
• the bedroom.

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BONUSReal Estate Crime Prevention Tips For Sale
By Owners

• Later, the seller discovers jewelry,
  collectibles and heirlooms missing, often
  appropriated from dresser drawers while talking
  to the female accomplice in the kitchen.

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BONUSReal Estate Crime Prevention Tips For Sale
By Owners

• After an open house, check to make sure that
  the house is secure. It's not uncommon for a
  thief, posing as a buyer, to leave a window open
  in the basement or garage or an outside door ajar
  so they can obtain access later.

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QUESTIONS????