Daily Real Estate News  |  December 16, 2003  |   Camera Phones Can Serve as Safety Tool Many real estate professionals use camera phones to send instant pictures of new listings to their clients, but the devices also can be used to protect them from criminals posing as homebuyers. Beginning next year, real estate practitioners will have access to the RealSafe.net Network: a database of camera-phone photos of prospective homebuyers. Practitioners simply pay a monthly fee to the Marietta, Ga.-based firm, get permission to take the buyer's picture, and send it to the secure database. The photographs are accessible only under court order. According to company founder Pat Dougherty, signs advertising the service will be posted in homeowners' yards and windows. She believes the service will give homeowners peace of mind when strangers enter their residence; and she insists the database also could prove useful to mobile workers, car dealers, and apartment-leasing agents, among other professionals.

Source: Chicago Tribune (12/14/03); Umberger, Mary