Statistically speaking, it’s not likely to happen to you. However, it is certainly going to happen to someone. Real estate agents have a risky job. Their work involves interacting regularly with people they do not know, including posting photographs and professional information in both newspapers and the Internet, driving in cars, and entering vacant buildings with strangers. Considering that the majority of real estate agents are female, this can make them easy targets for predatory individuals looking for victims to rob or physically harm. The risks real estate agents face every day demand top-notch vacant property security.
Recent years have been turbulent in the real estate industry. They have seen a surge in assaults against real estate agents along with increasing violence and lethality in those assaults. 2010 saw 940 real estate and rental leasing professionals assaulted without fatality, rising drastically from 620 in 2009 and 170 in 2008. Interestingly, such violence reached its lowest recorded point in 2005 at the height of the housing boom.
An effective board-up operation can be invaluable for preventing such violence against realtors. Vacant property security can be a difficult matter. Rough neighborhoods often see vacant properties occupied by squatters. Windows are easily broken, wood splinters, and locks can be compromised. A squatter can take up residence in an abandoned property without proper board-up precautions, and they often do not like realtors coming in to sell off what they consider their territory.
Considering the risks, a real estate agent should always take appropriate precautions in vacant property security when meeting clientele. Meeting with strangers in isolated, closed-off places brings with it a menagerie of dangers, and a good Chicago board-up job can do wonders to keep out squatters and preserve workplace safety.
