Crimes against real estate agents are a growing problem, and mobile apps are cropping up to help them stay safe.
The latest is called Forewarn, launching Monday, which allows an agent to enter a prospective client’s phone number ahead of a blind meeting and get an instant background check that looks a lot like a police report.
Forewarn says its app can provide information on 80 percent of callers, ferreting out any criminal history, plus verifying car and home ownership, mortgage liens and whether a person has filed for bankruptcy. It can also pull up address histories and other phone numbers.
The app is available only to licensed real estate agents, who increasingly are getting calls from clients who have found properties on open listing sites without a broker.
“An unfortunate aspect of the profession requires members to meet strangers,” said Sara Wiskerchen, a spokeswoman for the National Association of Realtors.
Forewarn, developed by data-analytics firm Cogint, estimates that agents are now scheduling 40 to 50 percent of their showings with people who have not been pre-vetted by another agent.
Sitting in apartments and homes at publicly advertised open houses, agents can feel like sitting ducks, as they often wear expensive jewelry and drive luxury cars to meetings in secluded neighborhoods.
Over the past few years, several real estate agents across the country have been murdered, raped and robbed.
In September 2014, Arkansas real estate broker Beverly Carter was kidnapped and murdered by a couple who had targeted her for being rich.
At the end of September, Carter’s family sued her employer, the real estate agency Crye-Leike, which “never ran background checks, nor encouraged its realtors to run background checks, on potential home buyers previously unknown to the company,” according to the complaint.
Half the NAR’s Realtors responding to its 2017 Member Safety Report said they try to first meet their potential clients in neutral settings. A full 44 percent of women and 25 percent of male Realtors feel unsafe about 40 percent of the time when meeting prospects, whether in urban or suburban metro locations.
Nationwide, the survey found 16 percent pack a pistol, 19 percent carry pepper spray and 5 percent have Tasers. But such weapons are either restricted or forbidden outright in key markets including New York City.
Other apps dedicated to Realtor safety include TrustStamp, which relies on biometrics to confirm the person’s identify from their profile photo. Another service called Guard Llama employs a handheld Bluetooth device that links to the agent’s phone and can alert police to come to the location.
About 44 percent of Realtors now use some kind of locator safety app and of those, 28 percent use iPhone’s Find My Phone feature. But as Forewarn spokeswoman Danielle Montana observed, those kick in when the agent goes missing or doesn’t check in, and may simply come too late.
“Anything that is increasing safety and that members can use are beneficial,” said Wiskerchen. “Over time the [apps] will grow in popularity.”
