Thu 19 Mar 2009

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5 Responses to “ Agent drugged by “buyer” at showing ”

Comments:

1. 
   Joshua Dorkin @ BiggerPockets.com says:
   March 19th, 2009 at 5:50 pm

   That’s really scary, Marlow. Thanks for helping to get the word out. I’m about to post this to our users as well.

2. 
   Marlow Harris says:
   March 19th, 2009 at 11:42 pm

   I wish we had more details, but even with the sketchy facts we have, we can figure out what happened. Sign calls and such should really be discouraged. Better to work on referral and introductions than go out and meet strangers. Yikes!

3. 
   Jillayne Schlicke says:
   March 22nd, 2009 at 8:59 am

   I wonder what the basic procedures are at all real estate firms for this kind of meeting, not only to protect our female agents as well as the male agents.

   For that matter, all off-site client meet ups. This kind of problem isn’t limited to “middle of nowhere” meetings. This could happen at a vacant listing as well.

4. 
   Marlow Harris says:
   March 22nd, 2009 at 9:34 am

   Every office I’ve worked in has a policy of inviting the buyer in to the office first to meet and pre-qualify, rather than meeting them at the house. However, these are large mainstream companies with bricks-and-mortar offices. I’m not sure that the smaller firms and the companies that have most agents working from home do.

5. 
   leanne finlay says:
   March 22nd, 2009 at 12:51 pm

   Marlowe, is there a link to the article?

   Even in the 1980′s every office had policies for their agents not to meet unknown potential clients. Men as well as women have had issues, from wallets, purses, jewlery, watches, cell phones stolen, to physical harm, even a few murders. It’s more common than many realize.

   No one — male or female — should ever go meet a potential person at a property, vacant or otherwise, without first meeting them at the real estate office to verify ID, and/or taking another agent with you. Even taking the second person for security may not be quite enough.

   Thefts and violence are definitely risk factors for real estate agents. I read somewhere that real estate agents are in the “Top 10″ careers of most likely to be murdered while doing their job. Great, just great.