Thanks for the reminder, I am the Broker and work by myself and there are times I am out showing properties in the rural areas that my cell phone doesn't even work. I try to take my husband with me on most of them (after we went through a learning curve of what he could and couldn't say). The thing that resonates with me when a tragedy happens is the line "we didn't think something like that could happen here". Thanks again, it can happen here and does.

The thought actually crossed my mind today when I had to go to a farm house on a dead end road. As I was driving there I thought to myself that I wished I had let someone know where I was going to be, from now on I will. And I will remind my colleagues to do the same.

This makes me sick - St. Peters used to be my market before I moved to Springfield.  I had this guy that talked to me about raping real estate agents while I was showing him a vacant home in St. Peters. Nothing happened because I took that as a warning and would not enter the house.

This days you could add a GPS capability to your cell phone so your close Family people know where you are.....

We had trainig on that in our local association office. Additionally, one of my previous brokers required that all customers meet us at the office, and that we must photocopy their driver's license- for our safety and theirs. It also would prevent or assist in capture of someone "Casing out" a property and later robbing it. Everyone in this business should do 2 things:

1: Take some sort of self-defense class. I had hand-to-hand combat training in the ARMY.

2: If possible, and legal, carry a weapon and learn how to use it properly. I recommend a .45. When it is my life or yours, I'm going to win.

I try and hold open houses with a lender, that way there are always 2 of you and no one is left alone.

I'm not a big fan of open houses for that exact reason, you never know who is walking into your open house.