Over the last few weeks…I have greatly appreciated the posts/strategies below—for keeping leasing agents safe—while they are touring.
Can you add to this discussion thread some words of advice…that work best for you?
Have you had a close call…and changed your approach to leasing tours—as a result?
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Twenty five years ago an agent was killed and a charitable trust was set up.
Posted by Nathan Mallows
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==>> Allow prospective renters to walk through the rental home/apartment on their own; do not follow or lead them into each room.
==>> There is no reason to walk room to room….stay by an exit/front door. If they have questions you can answer them as they come back out.
Posted by June Cano
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(A) Call your maintenance staff and arrange for them to drop by during a tour.
(B ) Have direct communication by walkie-talkie or push to talk on your cellphone. Sample reasons to communicate can be to verify that monthly pest control spraying was completed or that maintenance needed to be verified.
(C) The identifying information sheet on a prospective renter should be inserted into a locked drawer, out of sight of your prospective renter.
(D) The National Apartment Association has great articles on onsite practices in its UNITS magazine. My local NAA chapter summarizes recommended safety rules and members pass information to their on-site personnel.
A detective did a safety briefing at our association meeting, including types of changes in the MO of apartment crime and burglars and recent crime. The detective shocked more than a few managers with the revelation that one property in a decent section of town had over 150 – 911 calls on break-ins in a year’s time. Managers have a hotline E-mail set up within their own company and with other association members’ properties, to alert all of suspicious visitors, to include descriptive information, and can fill in and broadcast an E-mail within a matter of minutes to staff responsible for over 15,000 units.
Posted by Robert (Bob) Garrard
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For apartment buildings, get control of the common entry doors. One of the best ways to do that is with a biometric system. The Suprema systems I install are easy to use (even for self-managed or off-site managed properties)
Use a UL-437 listed lock. These locks have keys that cannot be copied. Because of their patent protection, they can’t be copied anywhere except through the authorized dealer. That gives you control over the number of keys a tenant can acquire, as well as the knowledge that all keys have been returned.
Environmental design is the BIGGEST factor. One of the BEST setups I’ve seen was an apartment building that had a standard phone entry system, and another entry a few feet away. It has a keyfob entry that the residents can use, as well as an interlock so that both doors can’t be opened at the same time, preventing someone from tailgating into the building.
Posted by Alan Lillie, TCPL
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Posted by Patricia McLoughlin
