A number of standard responsibilities and marketing efforts in real estate put agents in a vulnerable position — showing an empty property to new clients, holding an open house and advertising your location on social media can all be risky.
This reality is not lost on industry professionals, including men. A quarter of male Realtors carry a firearm for protection, the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) 2017 Member Safety Report reveals, while 12 percent of their female colleagues choose to pack heat as well. (The gender breakdown comes from a separate NAR blog post.)
Many agents also take precautions such as downloading a safety app, carrying pepper spray — the most common defense weapon — or investing in a taser.
While these safety measures ease worry for some, others prefer nothing less than the security and protection they feel when carrying a gun.
“About 4 percent of agents self-identify as having been victim of a physical crime: 2 percent say it was robbery, 1 percent say it was assault, and 1 percent prefers not to say,” wrote the Association’s director of multimedia communications Robert Freedman.
Given how gun laws vary nationwide, the 25-percent calculation may be uneven across the country. States like Arizona, New Mexico and Kansas that have lenient open carry laws might skew the national figure higher than it would be otherwise, NAR said. (Nationwide, recent surveys show between 32 percent and 39 percent of all households own guns.)
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With September being Realtor Safety Month, we want to ask: Do you carry a gun for protection? Let us know in the comments.
About the surveyNAR’s 2017 Member Safety Report is based on a sample of NAR members. The survey was sent to approximately 49,000 members and about 3,300 responded, which made for a response rate of 6.7 percent. NAR calculated a margin of error at plus or minus 1.72 percent.
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