3 Top Safety Tips for Realtors

Real estate requires you to meet new peo­ple every sin­gle day. This lets you devel­op a keen sense of oth­ers when meet­ing them to deter­mine the like­li­hood that they will make a pur­chase.

But unfor­tu­nate­ly, real­tors are still at risk when it comes to safe­ty. Sell­ing a prop­er­ty requires that you trav­el away from your office and meet unfa­mil­iar peo­ple.

Know­ing how to pro­tect your­self will give you the secu­ri­ty you need when meet­ing prospec­tive buy­ers at your next show­ing.

Here are some Safe­ty Tips for Real­tors

Know the Buy­er

Although you nev­er tru­ly know some­one until you meet them, you can gath­er some infor­ma­tion about prospects before you meet them.

A good rule of thumb is to nev­er meet some­one new alone at a prop­er­ty. A bet­ter alter­na­tive is to sched­ule an office meet­ing, where you can be around oth­ers and gath­er more infor­ma­tion.

You can have indi­vid­u­als com­plete an ID form and obtain their address and infor­ma­tion relat­ed to their vehi­cle. This will give you a valu­able ref­er­ence should there be any issues in the future.

Have a col­league accom­pa­ny you if you’re meet­ing some­one at a new prop­er­ty. This will give you an added lev­el of pro­tec­tion while show­ing the prop­er­ty. You should also ver­i­fy any infor­ma­tion pro­vid­ed to you pri­or to meet­ing in per­son.

Know the Prop­er­ty

In addi­tion to know­ing the prospect, you should also become famil­iar with the prop­er­ty you’ll be show­ing. If you plan to have an open house, take some time before­hand to pre­view the prop­er­ty.

The fol­low­ing are just a few key things to famil­iar­ize your­self with:

• Any stor­age spaces
• All exits avail­able to you
• Con­tact infor­ma­tion for neigh­bours
• Door and win­dow locks

Keep all entry points unlocked dur­ing your show­ing. Although it might seem unset­tling to con­sid­er escape routes, it’s one of the best ways to keep you safe as a real­tor.

Any prop­er­ty show­ing should be done dur­ing the day. Try not to sched­ule any­thing after dark. This reduces your lev­el of safe­ty and can make it dif­fi­cult for you to make a quick exit if nec­es­sary.

Pro­tect Your­self

Keep­ing your­self safe is a per­son­al respon­si­bil­i­ty. Take your own car to a prop­er­ty show­ing. Have the prospect meet you there instead of rid­ing in the same car.

Also, try not to have a lot of valu­ables or cash in your pos­ses­sion. Jew­el­ry and oth­er valu­able items should be kept to a min­i­mum or out of sight. Homes that are still occu­pied should be free of expen­sive dec­o­ra­tions that can lead thieves to make a return vis­it.

If you’re hold­ing an open house with many vis­i­tors, have a col­league on hand to mon­i­tor activ­i­ty through­out the house. They can also make sure that no one steal­ing unat­tend­ed items and see when oth­ers are enter­ing and leav­ing the prop­er­ty.

Final­ly, use your best judg­ment and don’t be afraid to trust your instinct. Any strange activ­i­ty or behav­iour should be not­ed. If you feel a need to end the meet­ing or exit quick­ly, don’t be afraid to do so.

Keep­ing you safe as a real­tor is impor­tant when show­ing prop­er­ties to new prospects. Tak­ing the time to gath­er infor­ma­tion on the buy­er and the prop­er­ty will ensure that you avoid any unsafe sit­u­a­tions and get the most out of your next sale.