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Realtor Safety Report 2011 – violence against Realtors on the rise



Lani Rosales | 2011/09/13  | 100 Comments

danger Realtor Safety Report 2011 violence against Realtors on the rise

State of the industry

September marks the National Association of Realtors’ Realtor Safety month and the industry is currently introspective about the topic, sharing tips and tricks of the trade. While it is important to prevent crime against real estate professionals, preparation is the best way to fine tune the gift of instinct. For the first annual Realtor Safety Report, we have teamed up with Moby and S.A.F.E. to investigate the rise in violence against real estate professionals. The real estate industry has lost some amazing people this year, and countless others have been assaulted; in conversation with leadership at Moby, we all felt that the actual crimes are not being analyzed in depth, rather associations are limited to sharing tips on heightening Realtor awareness.

In an effort to learn more about crimes committed against real estate professionals in the past year, AGBeat teamed up with Realtor safety expert Andrew Wooten, President of S.A.F.E. who said, “The past 12 months have been the most violent I have seen in twenty-six years working in the real estate industry. We’ve seen an increase in attacks, murders and suicides.”

Given Wooten’s note that violence is on the rise, and our mutual feeling with Moby that the why is not being investigated, we dug deeper to learn whether or not the crimes against Realtors had a common theme in an effort to discover something to look out for, something for Realtors to be aware of, for hope of a safer industry.

Our research did discover these minor commonalities:

  1. The majority of the attacks on Realtors in 2011 occurred in the afternoons on Thursday or Friday
  2. Nearly 30% of attack victims are men
  3. Most attacks did not occur inside major metro areas
  4. Guns are used roughly 50% of the time in attacks
  5. Robbery was the intention going into the attack but frequently resulted in murder

These commonalities were not enough to determine a trend, so we analyzed age, brokerage size, how long the agent had been licensed, the average days on market and price of where they were attacked, whether they were alone or not, how many assailants there were, the unemployment rate of the area, whether they knew their attacker or not, the attackers’ intentions and more.

What we found will frustrate some people. We ultimately discovered that there is no face of a standard victim, no face of a standard attacker, and no common theme between the many attacks. Some attacks were simply robberies, some were in luxury listings, others in foreclosures, some were sexual assaults in a basement, another was a woman attacked on a front porch by a client she already knew, and another was an apparent revenge kill. The only common threads between these attacks are (1) there is no common thread, everyone is equally vulnerable and (2) many lives have been altered this year as people have lost loved ones or have been attacked.

Why are Realtors a target?

Discussing the topic with many Realtors across America, the most common answer found to the question “why do you think there is an increase in violence against Realtors?” was that average consumers believe Realtors are wealthy, therefore, they are targeted. Although most agents are barely scraping by and many are having to choose between their cell phone bill and their used Lexus payment, faces on billboards look successful, so many Realtors believe they are vulnerable because agents are depicted as rich by media, movies, and the perpetual “it’s always a good time to buy/sell” smile on many Realtor faces.

What is the answer when there is no common thread between violent attacks? What do you do when you discover agents aren’t being attacked because they’re selling foreclosures, rather all types of properties? What do you do when you learn it’s not just women that are victimized and that someone can attack you even if they don’t have a weapon?

You prepare, you fine tune your gut instinct, and you learn everything you can about keeping yourself safe. Does that mean taking karate or using a buddy system? Possibly. Arm yourself with personal safety monitoring devices, they’ve become so inexpensive. Take lessons in self defense, especially from Realtor safety experts. Everyone is vulnerable, especially in a vacant home and leaving breadcrumbs behind to show someone “who dun it” won’t cut it, so agents should all be prepared in advance and trust their gut instinct when something is off.

Full 2011 Realtor Safety Report

Click here to view the presentation below in full screen and
click here for a PDF of the report to email to your team.

The report analyzes sixteen assaults, half of which occurred in June and July of 2011, and sexual assaults are separated out.


Start spreading the news...


This article published on Tuesday, September 13th, 2011 at 12:03 am | Contact the editor

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Topics: News

About this Columnist (Full Profile)

AGBeat Editor-in-Chief: Lani, named one of Real Estate’s 100 Most Influential, as well as 12 Most Influential Women in Real Estate, is a business writer hailing from the great state of Texas in the city of Austin. As a digital native, Lani is immersed not only in advanced technologies and new media, but is also a stats nerd often burried in piles of reports. Lani is a proven leader, thoughtful speaker, and vested partner at AGBeat.

Email Lani Rosales



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  12. Is the Realtor Profession Becoming More Dangerous? | Houston Agent Magazine:

    [...] in the real estate industry. We’ve seen an increase in attacks, murders and suicides,” Wooten said. And this after recent news that one in four male Realtors come armed while on the [...]
  13. Is the Realtor Profession Becoming More Dangerous? | Miami Agent Magazine:

    [...] in the real estate industry. We’ve seen an increase in attacks, murders and suicides,” Wooten said. And this after recent news that one in four male Realtors come armed while on the [...]
  14. KWPP:

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  16. Homes Connect:

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  17. Homes Connect:

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  19. Chris Peters:

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  20. Chris Peters:

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  33. Chicago Agent Magazine » Blog Archive » Is the Realtor Profession Becoming More Dangerous?:

    [...] in the real estate industry. We’ve seen an increase in attacks, murders and suicides,” Wooten said. And this after recent news that one in four male Realtors come armed while on the [...]
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  68. Keeping Real Estate Agents Safe « The Official NUMBER1EXPERT® Weblog:

    [...] being violently threatened by attackers on a much more dangerous level as of late. According to a recent report by AGBeat and Realtor safety expert Andrew Wooten, the past 12 months have been some of the most violent for the estate industry, with a noticeable [...]
  69. Realtor Safety Month » Advanced Access Blog:

    [...] Agent Genius partnered with Wooten to study these assaults to try and figure out if there were any trends to look out for in order to proactively protect Realtors. Unfortunately, it seems as though anyone is at risk. But even still, here are five points that the study tells us, according to AGBeat: [...]
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  76. Austin police seeking leads on man targeting area Realtors:

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  77. @conalcampbell:

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  78. Conal Campbell:

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  79. Resist Attack:

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  96. Safety for Realtors® « Just Ask Madeline's Blog:

    [...] Realtor Safety Report 2011 – violence against Realtors on the rise [...]
  97. The Bacher Blog : Real Estate: Welcome to the Danger Zone:

    [...] "2011 Realtor Safety Report" Examining a year of attacks on [...]
  98. SILVAR reminds REALTORS® to review safety tips « Silicon Valley Association of REALTORS® says …:

    [...] 2011 Realtor Safety Report, a study conducted by AgBeat, Moby and S.A.F.E. (Safety Awareness Firearms Education), indicates [...]
  1. Jared Gruber says:
    2011/09/27 at 8:06 pm

    This is terrifying. A lot of what was mentioned above was also surprising… NOT in metro areas? how do the attackers know that an agent is going to be there? I can understand in a city where there is a lot of foot traffic anyway… Could it be the lockboxes giving it away?
    I’m a Philadelphia real estate agent and safety is always a concern, no matter what area of the city you find yourself in.

    Reply
  2. Carolyn Murphy says:
    2011/10/20 at 5:34 pm

    I have been a licensed REALTOR since 1993 and because I am a retired Law Enforcement Officer, have been teaching Realty Safety Awareness in my area for 17 of those years. I am pleased to see that so many are finally paying attention to the potental dangers of our profession.
    There are many things that we do on a daily basis that put us in precarious positions. Think about how to stay safe when dealing with a total stranger. Consider how & where agents place their lockboxes that we have to open: usually turning our our backs to customers, bending over or crawling behind a bush to get to them. Think about when you are working an open house – all alone – and all of a sudden there are 3, 4, 5 or more people in that house and you no longer have any control whatsoever, of the home or your personal safety. The issue for all of us is to THINK about our safety all of the time and work our job around it. If you start to get a strange feeling about someone you are with – remove yourself immediately. Intuitition is a wonderful thing. Trust it.

    Reply

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