Protect Yourself
13Tips for Outwitting the Bad Guys
Crime experts tell you how to watch your back while you do business.
Safety First
When the mercury climbs in the summer, so does crime, say experts.
During the peak of this year's heat, Today’s REALTOR® brings you a package on personal safety.
It includes precautions you can take to avoid risky situations, safety measures companies can enact, and a strong message from one real estate professional who survived every practitioner's nightmare.
BY FRANCYNE ROSENSTOCK
Don't be tomorrow's headline.
In the midst of the dog days of summer and the long daylight hours the season brings, you may be tempted to leave screen doors unlocked, take a late-night cruise in your car, or let your guard down as you push to ring up sales during a prime selling time. Don't, say the experts.
Crime authorities remind you that crooks work year-round around the clock.
Several safety experts gave Today’s REALTOR® some easy-to-implement safety ideas for you to use and to clip out and post on your bulletin board at work or your refrigerator at home.
The tips are a consensus of ideas from J.J. Bittenbinder, a former homicide detective with the Chicago Police Department who is a nationally recognized personal safety expert and the author of Tough Target: The Street Smart Guide to Staying Safe; Ray Botterbush, a real estate practitioner who is vice president of Botterbush & Associates Inc. and deputy sheriff of Madison County, Ill.; Ronnie Cline, supervisor of safety training at Metro Crime Prevention, a national safety training company based in Atlanta; Jim LaValley, principal of LaValley Real Estate, Tupper Lake, N.Y., who conducts safety seminars; and Joan Malone, a salesperson with RE/MAX–DFW Associates, Dallas, who survived a personal attack.
Here are some ways to stay ahead of the bad guys:
1. Reach out and touch someone. Carry a cell phone. Bittenbinder suggests you program your cell phone so that the police emergency number is on speed dial.
2. Overexposed? “The more exposure you have, the greater your risk,” says LaValley, about a business in which exposure is a way of getting business. Concentrate on your professional proficiency rather than personal information in newspapers and résumés.
3.The great escape. Don't get caught off guard at open houses or listing presentations. Prepare a scenario so that you can leave or encourage the person making you uncomfortable to leave. Some ideas: Your beeper went off, and you have to call your office; you left some information in your car you need to get; mention that you're expecting another salesperson with buyers in a few minutes.
4.Demolition derby. If you're accosted in a parking lot and forced to drive, don’t leave the area, Cline says. One suggestion: If you're in a crowded area, run your vehicle into another one or into something else, such as a building or a tree. You'll attract attention, and that’s the last thing a perpetrator wants. If you're confronted at your car, throw your car key in one direction and run screaming in the opposite direction. For this reason, Cline says, keep your car key separate from your other keys.
5.Identify buyers. Make a copy of the party's driver's license and write down a car license if you can. Malone suggests getting an employer's name and calling to confirm employment. It’s tempting to start showing homes right away to walk-ins, but it’s better if you get information and make an appointment for the following day so that you have time to fact check.
6.Identify sellers. Malone suggests checking county property records to confirm the ownership of property before you go to a listing appointment or approach a FSBO. The more information you have, the easier and quicker it is for police to catch a perpetrator if you become a crime victim.
7.Appointment with destiny. Know the sales area. Preview the property. Meet the buyers at your office, where they can be seen by your co-workers. Then travel separately to the property: Don't feel obligated to act as a chauffeur.
8.Don't get greedy. It’s better to walk away from a listing or not show a house if you have an uneasy feeling.
9.Phone home. Let your office know where you are at all times. Arrange to call your office at a specific time and do it. No excuses.
10.A friend in need. Take someone with you to open houses, listing appointments, and showings.
11.The eyes of the beholder. If a buyer wants to see houses in an area you perceive as unsafe, don’t go.
12.Be prepared. Carry pepper spray on your key ring and in your car and know how to use it, suggests Bittenbinder. Take a personal safety course. New York state has approved a safety training course for continuing education credit, LaValley reports.
13.Beware of the blues. Cline cautions about being approached by a vehicle with blue lights at night. Call 911 to identify the vehicle, turn on your flashers to acknowledge that you see the police car, and keep moving until you're in a well-lit area. A legitimate law enforcement official will understand your caution.
More Ways to Keep Safe
For additional information on safety, visit One Realtor Place® at REALTOR.COM andsearch under safety tips.
To order a video on personal safety ($39.95 plus shipping and handling), call the Women's Council of REALTORS®, 312/329–8482.
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A Survivor's Warning
Trust Your Gut
One Safe Way to Practice Real Estate: By Referral Only
People are so eager to make a sale that they don’t think about their own safety, says Joan Malone. And she ought to know.
“You have to remember that there's no 100 percent–safe situation and that when you leave your house in the morning, you may never come home,” says Malone.
The salesperson with RE/MAX–DFW, Dallas, had a run-in last year with danger and almost lost her life.
It was every real estate practitioner's nightmare: She was attacked by a prospect who strangled and stabbed her and left her for dead.
In response to her ordeal, she has made it one of her goals to educate others about personal safety.
She gives speeches at professional meetings, is involved with a woman's safety program in her community, and recently donated $1,000 to her local police department to fund the purchase of a specially designed, ultra-padded suit used in self-defense courses.
And despite the pain of remembering her attack, she shares her story with many people, especially real estate practitioners, to make them aware of what can happen.
“We all think it can’t happen to us,” she says, “especially if you live in a community like mine: mostly professional, average home price $190,000, a small-town atmosphere. But bad guys have nice cars, too.”
When Malone met up with her bad guy, she did everything right except trust her own instincts.
The well-dressed buyer came into the office and told her he was an attorney who was dissolving a partnership and would have all-cash funds in a few days.
He gave her his name and a working telephone number. He drove a nice car. There were people with him—two women and a child.
After Malone had shown them several houses, they left without a purchase. Several weeks later, the buyer resurfaced and made an appointment to see houses. Malone felt uneasy.
The next afternoon, while showing him a house, Malone was brutally attacked by the buyer. She was knocked to the ground and broke her back. He started to rape her, but she fought him off. Instead, he strangled her until she was unconscious and then stabbed her. He robbed her and drove away in her car.
After Malone regained consciousness, she crawled to a phone, dialed 911, and collapsed.
But she also had a paper trail—with the man's real name—that helped police catch him. Malone was able to identify the attacker.
The Dallas County district attorney offered Malone's assailant a plea bargain: 40 years in a maximum security prison with no chance of parole for a minimum of 20 years. He accepted.
Malone has returned to the real estate profession and now works mostly by referral.
On the first anniversary—March 19, 1998—of her attack, she took the day off. The next day she went to three closings.
One point that Malone and safety experts emphasize is to trust your gut.
“You spend time to get people you work with and live with to trust you, so why not trust yourself?” asks J.J. Bittenbinder, a former homicide detective with the Chicago Police Department.
“Listen to your inner voice,” says Malone. “I had a gut feeling, but I argued with myself anyway.”
—Francyne Rosenstock
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Partners in Safety
5Security Steps for Companies
Establishing call-in procedures can lower risks.
Real estate companies are often in the best position to help keep practitioners out of harm's way, say crime experts interviewed by Today’s REALTOR®.
Here are five ideas they say you might try to keep safety first in the minds of your salespeople.
1.Establish safety measures. Initiate office safety strategies such as the buddy system.
- Have salespeople sign out of the office and indicate where they’ll be.
- Have a registration book for office visitors. In large offices, issue an in-house ID tag or access card to salespeople and staffers that can be worn at all times.
- Establish a secure location in your office where staffers can go in case of a threatening situation.
- Put safety policies in writing and make sure everyone follows them.
- Make sure private offices and work areas aren’t accessible to visitors. The less outsiders know about the inner workings of your office—where salespeople sit, nooks and crannies, and back doors—the better chance you and the salespeople have to escape in an emergency.
2.Switch open houses. If safety is a concern, have salespeople partner at open houses or have a male salesperson substitute for a female, says J.J. Bittenbinder. He notes that more females than males are attacked. Bittenbinder is a former homicide detective with the Chicago Police Department and a nationally recognized personal safety expert.
3.Make periodic checks. Visit or at least call open houses where practitioners are working.
4.Know where your salespeople are. Establish a call-in system, requiring salespeople to call the office at specific times. If your office is closed on weekends, arrange for salespeople to call one another.
5.Create a secret language. Ray Botterbush, a real estate practitioner who is vice president of Botterbush & Associates Inc. and deputy sheriff of Madison County, Ill., recommends using a voice stress code, a secret word or phrase that is not commonly usedbut can be worked into any conversation so that salespeople can indicate if there's a problem.
—Francyne Rosenstock
