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Sign into your accountMobile App Prevents Agents from Becoming Crime Victims
May 17 2015
In late 2014, Realtor Beverly Carter vanished while showing a house to prospective buyer, Arron Lewis. Five days after Lewis was apprehended, police were led to the body of Carter.
While Carter's case may be heartbreaking, this is not an isolated incident. Many agents have been murdered, raped or assaulted while working. In 2011, a Bureau of Labor study said that those in the real estate industry experience a 40 percent higher rate of on-the-job crime than the average profession.
According to Lee Goldstein, CEO of Real Safe Agent, it doesn't have to be that way. Combined with a team of programmers and financial partners, Goldstein thought of a new way to keep Realtors safe. Unlike personal safety apps that have been readily available for years, Real Safe Agent is an enterprise safety system that deploys through the MLS or Realtor Association and allows the entire real estate community to protect each agent without interfering with legitimate sales opportunities. According the company's website, "Any agent could need help on any day, but every can help any other agent every day."
"Staying safe means preventing trouble, not merely alerting people that you are already in trouble; by then it's too late," says Goldstein. "The Real Safe Agent system represents a paradigm shift. We designed it to deter predators and allow agents to prevent trouble."
The system's key features include allowing agents to visually verify prospects before meeting with them, finding out if other agents have felt unsafe with the prospect and, during a showing, if an agent becomes uncomfortable for any reason, the app allows the agent to request that a nearby agent drop-in. According to the company, having another agent drop in during the showing prevents trouble if the prospect was a threat without interfering with the sales process if the prospect wasn't. Additionally, brokerages, associations, and MLS can have watch commanders if they choose. These are individuals who can monitor alerts and even ask agents close to an alert to respond if no one has responded within 30 seconds or a minute.