Crime Prevention for Real Estate Agents: An Introduction

This is the first in a series of articles that teaches Realtors how to prevent being a victim of crime. All month long, we'll be publishing content from an educational course on Realtor Safety in partnership with safety app creator Real Safe Agent. Please consider sharing this important information with your colleagues, agents (for brokers), and membership (for MLSs and associations).

Real estate agents face an entirely different set of challenges than the general population when it comes to safety. The general population stays safe by not being alone with strangers in areas hidden from the eyesight and earshot of others. However, this is how a real estate agent makes a living. The general population removes themselves from a situation where they begin to feel uncomfortable or unsafe, but a real estate agent will keep himself/herself in a situation where he/she feels uncomfortable or unsafe because he or she does not want to risk losing the sale.

These are calculated risks that a real estate agent makes in order to make a living, and therein lies the key to staying safe as a real estate agent:

• Evaluating the prospect, property, and circumstances
• Assessing the collective risk
• Reacting appropriately

This course is designed to provide you with the knowledge of how to evaluate the prospect, property, and circumstances so you can assess the collective risk of all three and make better decisions about which actions are appropriate to minimize risk and keep yourself safe, as well as what can be done as a community do to keep each other safe.