Entering an empty, unfamiliar house with a stranger is all in a day’s work for real estate agents, most of them women.
Now wireless lock boxes designed to quickly notify a seller’s agent that a house has been shown are being outfitted with a new safety feature real estate agents can use in an emergency.
GE Security, which launched ActiveKEY in August, announced at the National Association of Realtors convention in Las Vegas a “panic button” feature that real estate agents can use unobtrusively to call for help.
“You’re on your own,” said Nicholle D. Dagata, a real estate agent in Berlin. “Sometimes you feel queasy.”
Cell phones are an obvious solution, but cannot be used inconspicuously and often are out of range in basements, she said.
Violence against real estate agents is not common, but incidents include assaults, robberies and even fatal attacks, according to the National Association of Realtors. In 2005, 2.5 percent of real estate businesses reported incidents of work place violence, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
More than 33,000 real estate agents in about 30 markets are using ActiveKEY, and 100,000 ActiveKEYS have been ordered and are expected to be in use by year’s end, according to GE Security, a subsidiary of Fairfield-based General Electric Co.
The cost to agents for ActiveKey is $11 a month, which will include the panic button feature when available in early 2008.
The service, provided to agents who are members of local real estate associations and Multiple Listing Services, is touted as a new tool to give an edge in what has always been a competitive market.
Marketing Tool
Real estate agents also see the technology as a marketing tool not available on sell-it-yourself Internet sites.
The panic button feature is expected to appeal particularly to female real estate agents, who comprise 64 percent of the industry’s work force, according to the National Association of Realtors. By pressing a button on the hand-held wireless device, an agent can send an alert to as many as five emergency contacts. The alert provides the address of the last lock box that was opened and a message programmed by the agent.
The agent for a prospective buyer who uses ActiveKEY gets the house key, and by using the device sends an e-mail to the computer or hand-held device of a seller’s agent, informing the agent that a house has been shown.
Information sent to a Web site after the showing can provide the homeowner and agent with comments about the house. The information is valuable to sellers who may make improvements or cut the price to more quickly sell the property.
