Tom Says: “It’s a wake up call…”
I’m surprised it’s taken this long for an attractive young real estate agent to be killed in the line of duty while showing a house.
Twenty-four year old Linsay Buziak who lived in Saanich, British Columbia was found dead in a million dollar home which she was showing to someone she had never met before.
Police who are investigating are saying very little about the details surrounding the killing but the time has come for Real Estate companies large and small to institute some new safety precautions.
People far wiser than I who know a great deal more about that industry should come up with a long list of do’s and do not’s covering how sales people should operate safely.
The first “do” would be to make sure your first meeting with a prospective client is in your office where you can be seen by other agents.
The first “don’t” would be under no set of circumstances meet an unknown prospective home buyer on site alone. What about those open houses where realtors advertise they will be at such-and-such address at such-and-such a time?
It could turn out to be a recipe for disaster.
Some years ago, after a similar incident occurred in the U-S — I had a conversation with a local real estate broker that it was only a matter of time until this type of incident occurred in Canada. With this one — I’d much sooner had been wrong than right.
I can’t think of too many jobs that are any more competitive than being a real estate agent and selling a property can be a real high. There’s an old saying that applies to just about everything — “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” and what might a little prevention have done to save this young lady’s life?
It’s a preventable tragedy and in this crazy world lets hope it never happens again.
I’m Tom Young.
February 9th, 2008 at 8:44 am
When I lived in Brampton, ON, around about l990, a female real estate agent was sexually assaulted, but I believe she survived. One thing the industry stopped doing there, at least for a few years, was posting the salespeoples pictures in the real estate ads. Wish that I could be a bit more specific. It’s been awhile.