April 16, 2019 – One third of real estate professionals say they’ve faced some type of safety threat in the field, according to the National Association of Realtors®‘ (NAR) latest Member Safety Report.
In response to recent incidents, NAR says it’s made it easier for members to alert each other of dangerous incidents. The Realtor Safety Network, which NAR launched last month, enables individual Realtors or associations to submit incident reports online.
In some cases, NAR, based on information logged into the Safety Network, may decide to issue a national alert to all members – or it might decide to share information with impacted local and state Realtor associations. NAR will issue alerts via social media using hashtag #RealtorSafetyNetwork if a threat warrants national attention.
According to NAR, alerts will be issued in situations when a Realtor or a Realtor’s immediate family member goes missing, an association name is being used fraudulently to dupe consumers, or a physical threat to Realtors is deemed important enough to warrant national attention.
In addition to issuing warnings, however, NAR says the goal of the Realtor Safety Network is to educate members about common dangers in the field, including meeting unfamiliar clients and selling vacant properties. It was “created to enable the National Association of Realtors to gather information about potential safety issues, share the information with the local and state association, and, when appropriate, issue alerts to members and AEs via social media,” NAR says.
Source: REALTOR® Safety Network and “Answers for Ashley: Police Hope New Tool Solves Ashley Okland Murder,” KCCI.com (April 8, 2019)