Realtor Safety: Reducing the Risk of Being Targeted

This month, we're publishing content from a course on Realtor Safety. This is the fourth in a series of articles that teaches Realtors how to prevent being a victim of crime. Read the previous article here.

The first step in preventing yourself from being the victim of a crime is eliminating as many "attractors" as possible. That being said, a big part of marketing yourself as a real estate agent is making yourself and your picture as prominent as possible. This section is about how to still market yourself, but make minor changes that remove as many "attractors" as possible.

Images

Images are an important part of marketing yourself and your listings. However, they are also often the item that starts the targeting process. Your professional photos can be an attractor for both the power motive and the profit motive.

To reduce the risk of being targeted by those with a power motive:

• Avoid full body pictures
• Wherever possible, use photos that are above or right at the shoulders

When using pictures that include the upper body:

• Be professional
• Wear a shirt that goes no lower than the top of the breast bone
• Don't wear anything form fitting
• Wear professional colors
• Wear a jacket where possible
• Be aware of facial expressions