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.

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.