Realtors take steps to improve safety for their agents

Joel Aschbrenner | USA TODAY

DES MOINES, Iowa — Prospective homebuyers who want to tour a house here might now have to meet the listing agent in a coffee shop or an office and show their driver’s license.

The new protocol comes as real estate firms around the country launch training and safety initiatives in an effort to protect agents.

Real estate professionals say the job has inherent dangers. Agents often find themselves alone in empty houses with prospective buyers they have never before met. But recent, high-profile murders of real estate agents have pushed the issue into the spotlight.

Last year, Arkansas real estate agent Beverly Carter was found dead after showing a home to a stranger.

In 2011, 27-year-old real estate agent Ashley Okland was shot and killed inside a model townhome in a suburb of Des Moines.

“Ashley was our ‘one too many,’ and we don’t want another one,” said Robin Polder, president of the Des Moines Area Association of Realtors.

Des Moines real estate firms Thursday announced a new safety initiative encouraging agents to not show homes to strangers before meeting them in a public place and checking their ID. The initiative includes an optional pledge for brokers and Realtors and an optional contract for home sellers.

The seller contract prohibits any agent from showing the home to someone they have not previously met and identified.

Dylan de Bruin, a Century 21 agent who helped create the seller contract, called the step “revolutionary” because it requires agents, even those who have not signed the safety pledge, to first meet new buyers in a safe place.

“I think this is something that starts here, catches and spreads all over the country,” said R. Michael Knapp, CEO of Iowa Realty.

Chris Polychron, 2015 president of the National Association of Realtors, said he thinks Des Moines’ optional seller contract is the first of its kind and he hopes other real estate firms adopt it. “I think they have been pioneers in a serious problem,” he said.

Meeting prospective buyers in public and checking their ID discourages would-be attackers and allows agents to spot red flags in a safe place, he said.

To encourage that practice, dozens of real estate brokerages and other firms have joined Open Door Partners. Participating companies open their offices for real estate agents — even those from competing companies — to meet with prospective buyers.

But there is still plenty of room for progress, Polychron said.

In 2013, the most recent year for which statistics were available, 25 real estate professionals were the victims of homicide, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

According to a 2015 National Association of Realtors study, 46% of Realtors said their brokerages had safety procedures for agents. Another 40% said they have experienced a situation that made them fear for their personal safety or personal information.

For agents and prospective buyers, meeting in public before showings is an added step that could be the difference between closing on a property or not. But advocates for the practice say it’s worth the time.

”We are not in any way trying to hinder a buyer’s capacity to get in a house, but we do have to take some steps to retrain the public to understand some safety protocols,” de Bruin said.

Aschbrenner also reports for The Des Moines Register