DORENE MENEZES
Teaches safety courses

Real estate agents in parts of Florida and southern Georgia are on edge after a series of attacks and robberies by a man posing as a prospective homebuyer. Police believe the same man may have committed all the robberies.

The crimes, which started in February, are similar in nature. In each case, a man has pretended to be a buyer interested in a luxury home and after luring a real estate agent to a vacant home he bound the victims with duct tape or some type of restraints. He then forced them into a closet or bathroom and stole money, jewelry, credit cards and other valuables before fleeing. The most recent attack occurred in mid-July.

The scary scenario down South is the reality that real estate agents across the country face every day on the job. But Realtors can take precautions to minimize safety risks, and that’s what Robert Siciliano hopes to impart on Bay State real estate agents this September.

Siciliano will be speaking to members of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors and other local boards about steps they can take to minimize their risk of being attacked on the job. Siciliano, a national speaker who is president of Safety Minute Seminars in Boston, will speak at a two-hour seminar on Sept. 16 organized by MAR.

He is also scheduled to speak to members of the Cape Cod & Islands Association of Realtors, the Plymouth and South Shore Association of Realtors and the Northeast Association of Realtors next month. The safety seminars are part of the first-ever National Realtor Safety Week, which will take place Sept. 14 to 20.

“The security professionals agree that real estate professionals are definitely in a high-risk position. The problem is that they are often in isolated situations where they are vulnerable to attack and because of that there are dozens of men and women who are assaulted, raped and sometimes murdered,” said Siciliano.

‘A Definite Concern’

Nationally, there were 57 violent crimes against real estate agents – six of them fatal – in 2001, said Siciliano, citing the most recent statistics from the National Safety Council. Bay State Realtors have had few incidents over the years.

Last year, however, a female Realtor was attacked while showing a Medford home to a supposed buyer but escaped relatively unharmed after a colleague who accompanied her helped her ward off the attack with a pen.

In a more tragic case, an Andover real estate agent, Marie Moson, was killed in 1988 while showing a multifamily home in North Andover. The man who was arrested for strangling the agent was the son of a woman who was negotiating with Moson to buy the North Andover home. The man, using a fictitious name, lured Moson to the home, strangled her, stole her car and dumped her body in Swampscott.

“It’s just a harsh fact of reality that there are predators out there that go after real estate agents,” said Siciliano.

“These are issues that we’ve addressed over the years in different forms, and unfortunately when incidents occur you never think it can happen to you and you would never think that in our business … it can happen. In actuality, we’re extremely vulnerable because we are constantly meeting and spending time with total strangers,” said Laura E. Shifrin, broker-owner of Townsend Center Realty in Townsend and a past president of MAR.

Real estate agents often unknowingly engage in behavior that makes them more vulnerable. It’s not unusual, for example, for agents to meet a prospective client they’ve never met before at a property they’re trying to sell. Siciliano advises against this, saying that agents should meet prospective clients at their office and obtain proper identification, such as a driver’s license, to verify that the person is who they claim to be.

In the Florida attacks, the robber posing as a homebuyer used different phony names in each case, according to a news account that appeared The Florida-Times Union in July.

“It [obtaining proper identification] would significantly reduce their chances of attack,” said Siciliano.

Another mistake that can make real estate agents a target is placing a personal photo on signs, newspaper advertisements and business cards – particularly the “glamour-style” photos that are taken to make a person look more attractive.

“It invites trouble,” Siciliano said of the photos. “To a predator, meeting with a real estate agent is a date, and that’s the reality of it. They don’t think like you and I do. When the real estate agent is showing them the property they think the real estate agent is flirting with them.”

Open houses can also present opportunities for criminals to strike. Siciliano recommends having two agents present at open houses or even having a police detail. For agents who are alone and start to feel uncomfortable, Siciliano offers this tip: The agent can alert the client that a colleague is on his way to meet them.

Dorene Menezes, owner of American Dream Realty in Westport, has taken precautions to keep agents in her office safe. Open houses conducted by her firm always feature two people, whether it’s two agents or an agent accompanied by a friend or relative.

Menezes, who has organized and taught safety courses for Realtors, bankers and seniors in the past, said she instituted the policy five years ago. That’s just one of the safety measures she has taken.

“We like to get the prospective buyer to come into the office first,” she said.

Menezes’ office also has a master schedule that agents use to record their appointments, so co-workers know when and where an agent will be meeting with a customer. She tells agents to call and confirm appointments just to make sure that the phone number the prospective client has provided is a real number.

“I tell them to trust their gut. If they feel there’s something strange about it, cancel the appointment until they can bring someone with them,” said Menezes.

Margie Richard, owner of Re/Max First Choice Real Estate in Northborough and Marlborough, said she tells agents to take someone along if they feel uneasy about meeting with someone.

With 135 agents, Richard’s company is too large to keep track of the comings and goings of every co-worker. But she said in the past, when agents have encountered a customer who is acting suspicious or if they’ve received threatening phone calls, the incidents have been reported to the local boards, including the Greater Boston Real Estate Board and Worcester Regional Association of Realtors. The boards then send out warnings to members to beware.

“These things are a definite concern,” said Richard.

Realtors can get more information about safety issues at www.realtysecurity.com. MAR’s safety awareness seminar is Sept. 16 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Sheraton Framingham Hotel. The cost is $20 for MAR members and $40 for nonmembers.