Bee Safe!

Your Safety Tips for March 27:

 

All tips are taken from the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS’® REALTOR® Safety Resource Kit. NAR’s safety Web pages are at http://www.REALTOR.org/Safety for more information on the important topic of REALTOR® safety.

Tip #1

Keep it light

Show properties before dark. If you are going to be working after hours, advise your associate or first-line supervisor of your schedule. If you must show a property after dark, turn on all lights as you go through, and don’t lower any shades or draw curtains or blinds.

Tip #2

Checking in

When you have a new client, ask him/her to stop by your office and complete a Prospect Identification Form (Find a copy online at http://www.REALTOR.org/Safety). Also, photocopy their driver’s license and retain this information at your office. Be certain to properly discard this personal information when you no longer need it.

Tip #3

Don’t be too public

Limit the amount of personal information you share. Consider advertising without using your photograph, home phone number and/or home address in the newspaper or on business cards. Don’t use your full name with middle name or initial. Use your office address—or list no address at all. Giving out too much of the wrong information can make you a target.

 Tip #4

Touch base

Always let someone know where you are going and when you will be back; leave the name and phone number of the client you are meeting and schedule a time for your office to call you to check in.

Tip #5

Open house: it ain’t over till it’s over

Don’t assume that everyone has left the premises at the end of an open house. Check all of the rooms and the backyard prior to locking the doors. Be prepared to defend yourself, if necessary.

Tip #6

Stranger danger

Tell your clients not to show their home by themselves. Alert them that not all agents, buyers and sellers are who they say they are. Predators come in all shapes and sizes. We tell our children not to talk to strangers. Tell your sellers not to talk to other agents or buyers, and to refer all inquiries to you.