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Anthony Lamacchia: Realtor friends, two things you can do to keep yourself more safe. Very important on the heels of that horrible story up in California of that female realtor getting pushed right off of her front porch. I watched it about five times last night. It disgusted me, and I wanted to talk to you about two things you can do. Anthony Lamacchia here with Crush It in Real Estate.
Number one, stop worrying about being so polite. If you’re in a house, you’re showing a property, you’re out showing some land, if you get a bad vibe and you really think something’s off, leave. Literally walk away. Run away. Get in your car and drive away. One thing I liked that that realtor did is she got invited back in the house, and she refused to go in. But one thing I wish she did, when she talked about how she got herself out of the house and there was a friend there with her, the friend left, I wish she just got in her car and left. She stayed on the front porch. She kept talking to the person. Why? Because she’s a nice person and she’s human. She was worried about being polite.
I put a message on our Facebook page last night internally and I said, “Stop worrying about being polite.” If you’re at a property, you sense something’s wrong, leave. If you overreact in maybe once a year or once out of every 500 showings you are actually rude at the end of the day, who cares? Yes, we’re in a service business. Yes, we want to do a good job, but your safety is number one.
The second thing that you can do, number two, don’t be so damn nice and so willing to go show a property to someone you’ve never met. We got people clicking on Zillow, Realtor, Facebook, all these different websites and insisting on seeing agents. “Show me in at five o’clock,” and agents go running over. Agents are far too willing to run out and meet someone at a vacant property that they’ve never met or a property that’s lived in but nobody is there. This stuff happens all the time.
Right here in Massachusetts, there was a story a couple of years ago of a buyer who insisted on seeing a property after 5:00 PM. Why? Well, they ended up finding out, and I heard this directly from our DA here Middlesex county, that the person knew there was a lot of homes being built in the street, and after five o’clock, all the contractors were gone. He got there with this female agent and he attacked her. Fortunately, she got him good and she left. It shouldn’t have to come to that. Don’t be so willing to go and meet people. If you really want to do things the– I sure don’t want to necessarily say the right way, but it is the right way, insist that they meet you at the office first.
I know that’s not always the easiest thing to do, and we actually train on that. We have scripts on how to get someone to want to come into the office. One thing you can do just say, “Hey, look what I require. My broker requires that everyone meets in the office before going out and seeing a property.” Us realtors do this to ourselves. We’re too nice. You all have to remember we’re the doctors, they’re the patients. They’re the consumer. Yes, we want to provide good customer service, but there’s no reason to be led around by your nose and potentially end up in an unsafe situation.
As I said, two things. Number one, don’t be scared to leave. Don’t worry about being rude. Number two, don’t be so fast to show properties to someone you’ve never met.
I hope that helps my friends. It’s a sad story. I’m really glad that woman’s okay, but I want people to be more aware of this. I want realtors to put their foot down on these situations because we don’t need to be led around. Agents don’t need to be led around by someone that could potentially be dangerous, and we need to be more careful. If we all do it, it won’t come off as some agents doing something different. That’s all, my friends. Have a good day and be safe out there.