Comments on: Personal Safety – Complacency Can Kill

By: Lindsay Buziak Murder - 1 Year Later and Still No Arrest | Sooke Community and Real Estate Blog 642Blog.ca

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 15:59:47 +0000

[...] year ago tomorrow I wrote this post, which still stands as the most-viewed page on my blog. It was one year ago today that 24-year-old [...]

By: Happy Blogoversary! | Sooke Community and Real Estate Blog 642Blog.ca

Happy Blogoversary! | Sooke Community and Real Estate Blog 642Blog.ca — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 22:35:30 +0000

[...] a few things about what’s popular on the blog. Sadly, the most popular entry I made was a list of safety tips for REALTORS® following the tragic murder of Lindsay Buziak in February. A post I wrote about a creep in a [...]

By: Rosalie

Rosalie — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 00:31:58 +0000

Lots of good comments and information. The first thing you need to know is that in almost all cases YOU will be the first responder. Knowing this, you must be mentally prepared for almost any situation. You must play over different scenarios in your mind and have a plan for each. In this way, you will not freeze up and will react quickly.
Using good common sense, by notifying your office of where and who you will be with, taking prospective buyers vehicle license and drivers license info and giving it to your office manager is helpful.
Have a personal protection product like a pepper spray, a taser, or a stun gun. A pepper pen is really a good idea because you can have it at the ready and a “buyer” will not be aware of it. Just be sure you know how to use any of these products. There is also a pepper pager and a stun gun that looks like a cell phone.
Never allow yourself to be cornered in a house. Always have the “buyer” go ahead of you.
There are a lot of other things you can do to protect yourself, but the main one is to have the element of surprise on your side, not the “perps”.
Be prepared for anything and be safe, not sorry.

By: kirbang

kirbang — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 19:08:15 +0000

While little can stop a bullet, an abduction is another matter. Law enforcement states that if 24 hours pass without notification of a missing person, the odds of a successful recovery are marginal. Because of this I have purchased a specialty GPS beacon which when the SOS button is pushed a message with my daughters identification and location are forwarded to a 24 hour monitoring station and well as myself. At least we will know something is wrong and can start now rather than later. Even if destroyed, the device will send a signal and something can be done.

By: beth

beth — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 03:11:34 +0000

Being in the real estate profession is a rewarding but very scary profession. Part of what you do is meet with people, who are usually strangers, and take them to places where there may or may not be other people around and where you can be totally out of touch with help. You definitely need to keep safety tips in mind when meeting people and if you get that ‘gut feeling’ that the meeting isn’t right, listen to you gut feelings. No sale is worth your life. Many times we get placid in what we do and tend to ignore the ‘safety’ tips we should be following.

Good post and very informative. Thanks for the information.

Beth

PS would you consider being a guest writer for my site? I would love some good, informative realtor safety tips that I could include for my realtor friends. In video would be great!!! Thank you for considering.

By: North GA Real Estate

North GA Real Estate — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 18:33:45 +0000

I think a self defense course is good. Carrying mace and programing the speed dial of phone to police can help. I think updating the staff your at a home is good and update when leave is essential. I still think that it can be a dangerous thing for anyone man or woman. There are creepy disturbed people out there.

By: Kirbang

Kirbang — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 23:15:58 +0000

Sounds like Mikester has a past history with the police. or an ideologue. I have found the police to be the opposite of controlling, I have found them mostly indifferent. To his point regarding gps, I have investigated the solution described above and 911 is only part of their solution. The critical advantage is they are a private sector solution provider (always better than the Govt, right Mike) who know who you are, have a complete bio, call list etc. With the sos button push a trained operator (not a bureaucrat) is assigned to help. They have direct links to 911 PSAPs as well a plan devised by me. As to a gun, their effectiveness is overrated. Police miss their targets about 75% of the time.

By: PV

PV — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 23:11:20 +0000

This whole blog is full of suggestions that are only partly useful — some– of the time.
The police say the killing of Lindsay had nothing to do with Real Estate. From this we can learn (assuming the police are correct) a few things. First, if the killer(s) didn’t get her that day, they would have gotten her at another convenient time and place.
If she had brought a friend, perhaps there would be two dead people instead of one.
Just because she was a REALTOR, does not mean she did not have an enemy . If one has an enemy that hates you to the degree of wanting you dead, and goes to the trouble of getting you alone, let’s face it, guns, karate, cameras, 911 on speed dial is not going to help you – period. Take a moment and think of anyone you may have jilted, whose toes you may have stepped on, or anyone you may have really hurt, then seek that one out in a public place, apologize, and try to right the wrong. Hopefully, this mitigation will salve the wound and create a new beginning.
I much enjoyed the video Ron Neal has been circulating of Randy Pausch on the Oprah Winfrey show. http://video.stumbleupon.com/#p=ithct48cqw

The principles within that, if applied would surely benefit anyone who for whatever reason, garnered an enemy.

I hope Lindsay’s killer(s) is/are found, but the rhetoric that followed in the Real Estate industry papers is not helpful if someone wants to cause someone harm.

By: Darlene

Darlene — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 14:59:54 +0000

Thank you for taking the time to publish this safety guide – it is at least a starting point for discussion.

By: Mikester

Mikester — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 20:51:03 +0000

Doesn’t the GPS panic alert just call 911? Come on people quit kidding yourselves. THE POLICE AREN’T THERE TO PROTECT YOU THEY ARE THERE TO CONTROL YOU. It’s so nice that you can have an automated chalk outline delivery service…… But it’s not the same thing as self-defense! It doesn’t even have to be a pistol but common sense tells you, armed is safer than unarmed.