WASHINGTON – July 25, 2011 – Nearly 34 percent of real estate professionals say they have felt unsafe on the job “occasionally,” according to an online survey of more than 450 real estate professionals conducted by Moby, a company that develops personal safety mobile applications.
Female agents reported feeling the most unsafe. Forty-two percent of women said they felt unsafe on the job at least occasionally compared with about 18 percent of men.
The top job safety concerns, according to the survey: Viewing vacant properties, hosting open houses and viewing REOs, short sales and foreclosures. Survey respondents also considered private showings and first meetings with clients as potentially unsafe.
Also among the survey’s findings:
• One of the most common safety precautions respondents reported taking is keeping others informed of their location, such as by sharing their itinerary (73.3 percent), checking in repeatedly (42.8 percent), and even attending appointments with a colleague, family member or friend (26.9 percent).
• Slightly more than 20 percent of survey respondents say they meet prospective clients at the office to photocopy their ID. About 13 percent of respondents, however, say they don’t take any precautions at all.
• The most common safety devices respondents say they carry while on the job were phones (95.5 percent). About 20 percent say they carried mace or pepper spray and 7.5 percent carried guns. About 2 percent of respondents reported taking dogs with them to showings for added security.
Source: “Lessons Learned from Real Estate Dangers,” Inman News (July 11, 2011)
© Copyright 2011 INFORMATION, INC. Bethesda,
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