Where Do Crimes Against Agents Take Place? Open Houses, Home Showings Are Two Significant 'Danger Zones'

Meeting with strangers in private locations can be an inherently risky activity, and it's something that real estate agents do every day in order to provide their clients with services. But exactly how dangerous is it, or can it be?

A recent WAV Group study examined agent safety topics, asking real estate agents if they have ever been the victim of a crime at work, what type of crime they experienced, who perpetrated the crime, and where it happened. The research indicated that open houses and home showings are two locations where agents tend to experience risky situations.

'Have You Been the Victim of a Crime at Work?'

Most respondents (62.5% overall) said that they have not been the victim of any crime at work. However, significantly more women than men have been the subject of some type of criminal behavior at work: 24.8% of men reported being the victim of a crime, compared to 44.6% of women.

After determining which respondents had been the victim of a crime at work, the survey asked agents who had experienced a criminal scenario at work to share where it took place.

Risky Open Houses, Phone Calls, Home Showings

More than half of agents who had experienced a crime at work (55.8%) said that the crime took place in one of three locations:

• At an open house: 20.9%
• On the phone: 19.8%
• At a home showing: 15.1%

There were some interesting differences between how male agents and female agents who had been the victim of a crime at work responded to this question.

Open houses seem to be more dangerous for female agents than for male agents. Of the agents who had experienced a crime at work, 22.5% of women said the crime took place at an open house, compared to 13.3% of men.

And female agents are significantly more likely than male agents to experience a crime such as phone harassment. More than one in five female agents who had experienced a crime said it took place on the phone (22.5%), compared to 6.7% of men. This is almost certainly because female real estate agents are inherently attractive targets for perpetrators of phone harassment; their images and their contact information are widely available in the communities where they work.

By contrast, significantly more male agents than female agents who had experienced a crime at work reported that the crime took place at a home showing. More than one in four male agents who had experienced a crime (26.7%) said the crime took place at a home showing, compared to 12.7% of female agents who had experienced a crime. Men were also almost five times more likely to say that the crime took place at a private meeting than women, 13.3% to 2.8%.

Tips for Staying Safe at Work

While brokerages can (and should) implement protocols to help keep agents safe, there is a lot that agents can do themselves to decrease risk and increase their own personal safety.

• Check in with friends and family. If you're meeting frequently with people you don't know well, establish a check-in system so that the people in your life know where you are supposed to be and when — and can raise an alarm if you're not.
• Use the buddy system. Bring a friend when hosting an open house, and consider partnering up with others when meeting prospects in private locations.
• Pre-verify identity of prospects. Before meeting with someone you don't know well, verify their identity, status as a homeowner, and their ability to buy or sell a home right now.
• Sign up for an answering service. Using an ISA or a third-party service to help you manage your phone calls (and screen them) can potentially eliminate some of the phone-based crimes that agents experience every day.

Stay tuned for the full results of the research report, and stay safe out there!