In an increasingly risk-filled environment, it is important to know how to stay safe as a real estate agent. To begin, the best and easiest way for the real estate safety issue to be fixed is by implementing mandatory safety precautions for all agents. If you have safety processes in a team that are mandatory, then you will greatly reduce the risk of a terrible event occurring.

We will go through 3 simple steps that you can take to ensure your avoidance of any horror stories.

Step 1: Research

The first step begins before the client meeting has even been accepted. Sufficient research is needed on a prospective client before any arrangement should be made. This can be done through a thorough Google search of the client’s name, noting any relevant results. While this should obviously be done for safety reasons, it should be done for professional reasons as well.

The more you know about someone, the more effective you can be when conducting business with them. Research should also be taken a step further, by utilizing other searching tools, as well. Criminal databases, local county databases, and external county databases should be extensively searched. It is important to note that it is not uncommon for criminals to move around, so all relevant counties should be thoroughly inspected. It is also crucial to keep an eye out for any prior convictions of the client, as this is a key predictor of whether or not they are a safe person to work with. If they committed a crime once, they will likely commit one again.

Step 2: Identification

Once the background research is done, and the client’s name checks out clean, the second step is ensuring the client’s legal identification. Are they really who they claim to be?

This can be assessed by asking the client to send a photo copy of their ID. This is a standard practice among realtors, in order to protect the assets of the homeowners they conduct business with. When dealing with expensive houses, it is important to take every precaution. If you do not, you may be held liable in case something gets stolen. A true professional broker will implement a procedure such as this among potential clients, before the first meeting. This is the only way to effectively prove identification.

Step 3: Safety in neighbors

If these procedures all run smoothly and a meeting is set in place, it is still a good idea to arrive early to the appointment. This will give you a chance to meet the surrounding neighbors, who will know if anything happens to go wrong during your showing of the house. Nosy neighbors will be your best friends when practicing safety measures.

If all these safety precautions are followed, and implemented as mandatory measures within real estate offices, then the safety issues within the real estate world will undeniably begin to decrease. Each safety measure taken is a risk assessment that must be looked at from every possible angle. If these safety precautions are not done carefully, they may be costly to your profession. While this may be a difficult balance, it can definitely be done. If these steps are followed, you will most certainly understand how to stay safe as a real estate agent.