Agent Safety Masterclass: How to Make It About Protection and Profit

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About This Episode

You already know that real estate is a dangerous job. You already know that understanding safety is all about self-protection and preservation. But did you know it can also be about profit? Yep. You can take the best safety practices and use them to get more listings and grow your business. This week on The Walkthrough™, safety expert Tracey Hawkins gives a masterclass in preventing dangerous situations and using safety to grow your business.

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Links and Show Notes

• Tracey Hawkins’ Website: Safety and Security Source, LLC
• Connect with Tracey: Instagram / LinkedIn / Twitter
• NAR 2021 Safety Report (mentioned in this episode)
• Forewarn (app mentioned in this episode)
• Google Maps (app mentioned in this episode)
• 7 Smart Safety Tips to Empower Real Estate Agents in the Field (HomeLight article from 2019 featuring Tracey)
• Join our Facebook mastermind for The Walkthrough™ listeners
• HomeLight’s Agent Resource Center
• Follow and listen to The Walkthrough™: Apple Podcasts/iTunes | Spotify | YouTube         

Full Transcript

(SPEAKER: Matt McGee, Host)

Matt: We have a safety problem in real estate. I take that back. We have two safety problems. Number one, your job is really unsafe. Number two, almost no one seems to care. Tracey Hawkins sums it up in three words.

Tracey: Safety isn’t sexy.

Matt: And that’s why I’m nervous about this episode. Now, I’m not nervous about the episode itself, understand? It’s great. Like, this episode has as much practical and important advice, probably, as any episode we’ve ever done. Here’s why I’m nervous. We have thousands of subscribers to the show, but I’m afraid that a lot of them are gonna see safety in the title and…

[sound effect: yawning]

But let me share a little secret with you since you are listening. Yes, Tracey’s gonna give us a masterclass in being safe on the job. But we’re also gonna talk about how you can take safety and turn it into this.

[sound effect: cash register]

Use safety for lead gen and lead conversion for getting more listings? That sounds pretty sexy to me. This is “The Walkthrough™.”

(INTRO MUSIC)

Matt: Hi, there. How are you? My name’s Matt McGee. I’m the managing editor of HomeLight’s Agent Resource Center. Welcome to “The Walkthrough™.” This is a weekly podcast. New episodes come out every Monday morning. This is the show where you’ll learn what’s working right now from the best real estate agents and industry experts in the country. At HomeLight, we believe in real estate agents. We are here to explore how great agents grow their business, stand out from the crowd, and become irreplaceable.

You might know that September is, traditionally, Realtor® safety month. Now, our plan was to do an episode in September on real estate agent safety. Then I started thinking, you know what? It’s too easy to shine a light on safety in September and then forget about it the rest of the year. I can tell you as the spouse of an 18-year veteran Realtor®, I think about safety constantly. And I know my guest today does too.

You probably know Tracey Hawkin’s name. She has spent almost three decades teaching safety to real estate professionals. She teaches safety to other industries as well, but I think real estate has a special place in her heart. She writes about safety for Realtor® Magazine. She speaks about safety at NAR and other conferences. She’s also a former real estate agent herself. So, her wisdom comes from experience.

Today’s show, as I said, it’s a masterclass in safety. Tracey’s gonna share specific tips that you can use during open houses, when you’re meeting new clients for the first time, and when you’re out showing homes. She’s gonna share a couple apps that you should be using on the job. And yeah, as I hinted earlier, she’s even gonna share some ideas from her workshops about how you can use safety to get more listings, to grow your business and stand out from the crowd. So, if you’re ready, let’s jump in. As our conversation begins, I’ve just asked Tracey, what are the most dangerous parts of a real estate agent’s job?

(BEGIN CONVERSATION)

Tracey: Let’s start with the job description. Real estate agents make a living sitting in empty houses waiting for strangers to walk in. Real estate agents make a living meeting complete strangers at empty houses. Need I say more? The U.S. Department of Labor considers real estate sales and leasing a high-risk hazardous occupation. It’s up there with security guards, it’s up there with convenience store clerks, taxi drivers, Uber drivers. It’s a dangerous job. But my job, I have found instead of the reactionary, “Hey, everybody, there’s been a crime. I’m an ambulance chaser. You know, let me help you.” It’s to be proactive. Let’s prevent these crimes right up front, and let’s do it in a way that’s going to get agents engaged and actionable.

Matt: You mentioned the job description is “sitting in an empty house waiting for a stranger to walk in”. Sounds like you’re talking about open houses to me. We have recently done episodes on open houses. Let’s talk about safety in an open house. What are some of the safety tips that you share with agents about doing open houses?

Tracey: First and foremost, every safety class that I do and I do personal safety, general safety, I do senior citizen safety, every safety class, real estate safety, and I do a class for brokers and managers, property managers. Number one, safety tip is to utilize the safety tool that every single animal in nature is born with. All of us are blessed with a device that can tell us when we are in danger. You know what it is, Matt?

Matt: My gut?

Tracey: Exactly.

Matt: Ta-da.

Tracey: Exactly. Ta-da. That’s it. Gut intuition, instinct, sixth sense. I’ve heard it call “spidey sense”, fight or flight, whatever you want to call it. Every animal in nature has that ability to detect whether or not they’re in danger. The only problem is that we are the only animals who choose to ignore that voice. Whether it’s we wanna be polite, we don’t wanna hurt someone’s feelings, we don’t wanna be silly, we don’t wanna look silly.

We ignore the voice whose sole purpose is to warn us when we are in danger. So, number one, always listen to the voice, no matter what the situation is. If you get that voice telling you you’re in danger, get out of the situation. You may have to apologize later, you may need to make up an excuse, whatever it takes. So, that’s number one.

Number two is, especially in an open house, create witnesses. And criminals are cowards. Criminals take seven to 10 seconds before they decide who’s going to be their target. So, I teach agents how to make themselves not look like a victim. So, that means from the front door, get a sign that says Smile, you’re on camera.” I tell agents to get one, take it with them, prop it at every front door. Use that little 3M tape and tape those signs throughout the house.

On the outside of the master bedroom, just on the outside or inside the media room, throughout the house, “Smile, you are on camera.” You know it, I know it. We act differently when we know there are cameras involved, especially like in a retail setting or a store. You see that dome, you know there’s a camera, I guarantee you, you’re acting differently.

So, I tell agents to create witness potential first and foremost. Whether there is a camera or not, use the signage. And nowadays, there’s so many cameras out there and there’s even a company that allows you to make your old, unused cell phones a camera. Create witness potential. And along those lines, that’s when you get an opportunity to tell someone coming in…Well, let me back up. You never, ever, ever have to do an open house alone.

And when I hear experts say, “Don’t do open houses alone, full stop.” I know that that’s in one ear and out of the other ear because real estate agents are going to do it anyway, but they might not have to do it nowadays. But if they want to lead gen, they’re going to be doing open houses. So, I am saying you never have to do one alone because every one of you have a built-in business partner who would do back flips to accompany you to that open house. You know who that is, right?

Matt: It could be your favorite mortgage lender, somebody from the title and escrow company, right? All the other business people that your client needs to interact with.

Tracey: Again, gold star. Yes. Never, ever do that alone. And it’s a great tool to partner with, like you said, some of those people who you do business with, it serves them and it serves you. So, that’s another person there. So, let’s say that doesn’t work. So, what you do is you create the perception of a witness. So, you tell the client, “Come on in, you know, I’ve got another agent around the corner bringing clients, I’ve got a family coming, I’ve got someone out back.”

You’ll give the impression that you’re not alone, or if you are, that you won’t be alone for long because criminals don’t want witnesses, they don’t want someone to make it hard. So, that’s probably the most important thing. During your listing presentation, you are telling your sellers to get valuables out of site. So many agents come in talking dollar amount and marketing, they don’t talk about the safety part of it.

So, as a safety-trained agent who is leading with safety, you are telling the agents to make sure sellers have…and I had an agent who says she will not do an open house if there’s a butcher block of knives in the kitchen. So, anything that could be used as a weapon out of sight. Guns need to be…any weapons need to be stored behind lock and key or even off-premises. Anything of value. That means your laptops, your devices, anything of value. Medicine out of medicine cabinets, jewelry out of jewelry boxes, anything of value needs to be out of sight.

So, that’s one less thing that you have to worry about. You’re not going to get that phone call, “Someone stole something during the open house, and why did you let them take it?” When it’s not your responsibility. So, you’ve said the words out loud. Get your valuables out of sight, so agents aren’t chasing behind people trying to make sure they don’t steal anything.

Matt: We talked about open houses. You also mentioned, when I asked you what are the most unsafe aspects of the job? You also mentioned showing houses, going out on home tours with strangers, people you don’t know too well. So, what can I do as a real estate agent? I have a new client, they’ve just called, we set up an appointment to go tour three or four houses in a given day. What can I do to make that a safer situation?

Tracey: First and foremost, do your homework. I don’t know how to make that any more clear. Know who you’re meeting. Go online, it’s as simple as Googling someone, checking their social media, knowing that there are websites that exist for the sole purpose of gathering information about everyone, all of us, you, me, everyone. So, utilize those websites, do your homework, make sure you’re not meeting a criminal.

And there is an app on the market that’s big in the real estate community that allows you to type in a phone number, and it will help verify the identity so you know you’re not meeting with a fake person, you know who you’re meeting with, and you can find out whether or not they have any crimes against them.

Matt: Let me jump in real quick. Tracey just mentioned an app that lets you verify the person you’re meeting with. I can already hear you, “Matt, Matt, what’s the name of the app?” Don’t worry. Don’t worry. A little later in the conversation, I’m gonna ask Tracey to tell me more about that app and any others she recommends. So, stay tuned for that. You know I won’t leave you hanging, right?

Tracey and I are talking right now about safety tips for your first meeting with a new client. She already talked about doing your homework. Tracey also suggests you continue to do your first meeting virtually, you know, Zoom or FaceTime, just like you probably did during the pandemic. She says that’s a great way to gather first impressions. If you’re going to meet in person though, maybe at a coffee shop or something, Tracey has some thoughts on how to lead with safety in that situation.

Tracey: If someone says meet at a coffee shop, that’s okay. The goal is to increase witness potential. Face-to-face meetings, they know that maybe, would-be-buyer perpetrator knows that they have been seen someone can identify them. So, if they’re in a coffee shop, it can’t be just any coffee shop. So, imagine showing up at the busy coffee shop down the street from the listing. The agent walks in, there are tons of people in there. The goal is not met. That barista does not know you from Adam. So, they’re not going to be able to identify you and who you’re with.

If it’s going to be a coffee shop, it needs to be one that you are a regular at. That they know you by name. They will know if they saw you and can identify you. So, that’s number one. If you want to utilize a workspace that’s closer to your listing, if your office is across town from the listing, meet at an office of maybe your lender, your title company, your insurance company. I guarantee you, they will not have a problem with you meeting in their office. So, a public first meeting is number one.

Matt: What about when you are actually out showing the homes? Are there things that an agent needs to be aware of?

Tracey: If you know who you’re dealing with, then that’s relatively safe. And if you know and you have told them, you know, “Hey, our safety procedure is checking in. Let me let someone know who I’m with.” When I talk about leading with safety, that means every conversation must have some kind of a safety tip in it. So, if you’re meeting a new client, our safety policy is that I must meet you before I meet you at the property. And if there is an argument or a debate that doesn’t make sense, then you explain why.

I had an agent say that she was going to meet new clients, she said, “Never met them before.” She was going to meet them at a property, and she stopped and thought about it and she was like, “Wait a minute, I don’t know them.” So she called back. She said, “Hey, let’s meet at my office.” He said, “Why? We have to drive by the house.  That doesn’t make sense.” She said, “I’d really rather you meet here. Let’s get some information and go from there.” He said, “That’s crazy.” She said, “Look, I don’t know you from Adam. If I were your mother, your sister, your daughter, your spouse, wouldn’t you want them to take that extra step?” The next question he asked was, “Where’s your office, and what time do we need to be there?”

Matt: I love that.

Tracey: So, definitely make sure that you know who you’re meeting, and every conversation again has to be about safety.  And then, once you get to the property, you could say, “I need to check in with my safety partner, let them know I’m here and how long I’m going to be here.” And if you just do it in a conversational tone, they already know that you’re concerned about your safety. Now they know, “Oh, okay. Someone knows she’s here. They know who she’s with.” So, this might not be so easy if they are a possible predator.

Matt: Tracey, I love what you said there about using the phrase, “My safety policy or our safety policy.” Like that is such a signal that I, as an agent, am taking this serious, and I’m paying attention. And yeah, like, what a message that sends, I feel.

Tracey: That’s my theme song or whatever. My theme is to lead with safety, and that’s what I teach agents. Always talk about safety from that first meeting. When you walk in the door for the seller, you’re talking about the security. You know, making sure your house is safe from the first meeting. Our safety policy is that I must meet you in advance when you’re talking to FSBOs, when you’re telling the seller to get valuables out of sight. So, every conversation needs to be centered around safety and security. So, you become that safety agent. That’s how you stand out.

Matt: Tracey, one last thing about showing homes to clients. I would assume it’s important to, like, know the layout of the home and where the exits are, stuff like that.

Tracey: Exactly. And that is something before they even arrive at the property, Matt, from knowing the ins and outs of the neighborhood, as well as the exits in the house. I tell agents to always let the client lead. What that is doing is that’s making sure that your exit is not blocked. So, you have to always have a tape in the back of your mind, “How will I get out in an emergency situation?”

So, imagine you’re walking through the property, you’re in a room, and the client comes in behind you and closes the door. You’re trapped. Now you have to think, “How do I get out of here?” If you make it a habit and again, after a while, it becomes second nature, clients always go in front of you. You can stand in the doorway and point out there’s the bathroom, there’s the closet, or you can even walk into a room or space always keeping your exit route open.

Matt: So, we’ve talked about safety during open houses, safety when meeting a new client, and safety when showing homes. Still to come, Tracey’s gonna talk about how you can use safety to get more clients and even grow your business. You’re gonna love that. But first, I asked Tracey, when most agents are independent contractors, what responsibility does the brokerage have when it comes to safety?

Tracey: Safety starts at the top. So, the National Association is saying, “Hey, it’s important, you know, for associations and boards to have some kind of safety training.” My question is, who is telling these companies…what are there, hundred thousand or so real estate companies? Who is talking to them about making sure their agents are trained? No one. No one is. So, someone, I said, “Who is doing that in our industry?” Someone said, “Tracey, The Safety Lady, you’re the OSHA of the real estate industry.” I take that, and I take that with pride.

So, what I did after a real estate agent was murdered, the family sued the brokerage for not providing safety training, and they said, “This is negligent. Had there been safety training, we believe our loved one would still be here.” I tell them that they must have training for their agents. Some of the topics we cover today, we’re not going to cover them all, of course, but someone has to tell agents the simple things, like you said, not walking up front, not meeting strangers, simple things. How to host the whole safe open house. No one was talking to them, so now I am. And I created the certification and the bonus that I did, Matt, I created a safety policy handbook. It’s a manual. It’s the only one that exists.

So, this way, it walks them through, it supplements our training. And let’s say something happens to an agent, that broker manager can say, “Look, I provided expert-led training, not somebody reading a PowerPoint. I had expert-led training. Here are my procedures. My agents signed off on it.” That helps reduce liability.

In my class, one of my broker classes, someone said, “You know, they’re independent contractors, I can’t tell them what to do. They do what they wanna do.” Someone corrected them and said, “Keep in mind that independent contractor is a tech status. Every single agent in that office is going to take their course training. They’re going to take their continuing education training, whether they want to or not, right?”

I’ll guarantee you every agent in that office will take some kind of sales training. They attend those sales meetings. They’re going to get that social media training, they’re going to get the video production training. I guarantee you that. The thing that’s missing is always safety. It gets put on the back burner until something happens. So, what I’m teaching agents…brokers is a mindset. Make safety training just as important as marketing, just as important as the lead gen training. And I’ve made it easy because I’ve incorporated that in. So, there are things that brokerages can do to change the culture of safety in their office. And I’ve made it even better because I teach how to build business even doing so.

Matt: Do you recommend that individual agents take a self-defense class?

Tracey: Agents should do whatever it takes. There are layers of safety. If you take a self-defense class, I don’t know if you remember that agent in Virginia who had someone come into her open house and he had a wrench. He hit her in the face and head 10, 12, to 15 times. She happened to be a black belt. So, she was able to defend herself. Yes, she had a long road to recovery. She was able to defend herself.

So, for those who say, “I took a…someone hosted a self-defense class,” and they’re showing how to do the punches and the strikes, one class is not enough. If you wanna take a self-defense class, you need to do it on a regular basis so that you learn something. One class, you’re not gonna learn enough to save your life. Weapons, do you recommend that agents carry firearms? And again…

Matt: I was just gonna ask you that.

Tracey: I know you were, I was reading your mind. Here’s what I did. Writing one of my articles, I went to the counsel, general counsel of the National Association of Realtors and I said, “What’s the rule?” He said. “On a national level, there are no rules. Brokers, agents need to check on a local level.” That means check with your association, find out if you’re able to carry a weapon or firearm while you’re working. That means check with your company, find out if your broker allows you to do so. And in those cases, do so. But Matt, I can’t say it enough, training, training, and then get some more training. It must be accessible. You must know how to use it.

For agents who don’t want a gun, pepper spray. When National Association of Realtors surveys members during their Annual Member Safety Report, pepper spray is always the number one safety tool, followed by firearms. So, in that situation…and I started my business selling pepper spray, still do to this day. In that situation, I tell agents, “Know what you’re buying.” Don’t just buy whatever’s on the shelf at the gas station or the convenience store. Whatever. Know what you’re buying, make sure it’s the right formula. And I cover that in my classes. And again, practice.

Matt: You mentioned an app earlier. I didn’t get the name of it. But what specific apps do you recommend to help with safety? I know there are several that, you know, will alert others to your location, there are some that will let you make emergency calls. That’s sort of the idea here?

Tracey: The one that I like and the most people know is Forewarn. I’ve had an opportunity to interview one of the representatives of Forewarn on a regular basis for all the articles that I write. I got a chance to meet them in person at the booth at the NAR Conference.  They’re there every year. What I like about Forewarn is first and foremost, it’s affordable. I think it’s like $20 or so a month.

And what I like is that if you get a call from someone who says, “Hey, I wanna see a property,” you type in that phone number, and what it will do is it will verify whether or not that’s a real phone number. It’s going to verify the owners of it. I heard someone say that…and it also allows you to do a criminal background check. And one time when I was interviewing Josh, I was on the phone and he said, “Give me a crime against an agent where there was an arrest made.” So, we go online, I say, “Here’s an agent that was attacked, here’s the guy who was arrested.” He pulled the guy’s information up, and the spring of crimes against that guy was as long as my arm. If the agent had done a simple check, she would have never, ever met him.

So, Forewarn is one layer of safety. Another one is something that we all have on our phones that we use every day, Google Maps. Google Maps is free, it’s already there. What I like about Google Maps is that you can share your location with your contact list. You can share your location in real-time. So, you can decide who can see your location, and you can decide the timeframe they can see it. It can be during showings or when you’re hosting an open house, a limited number of hours. I had an agent say, “I just put it on 24/7. My husband and my son can see where I am at all times. So, whenever I don’t show up where I’m supposed to be, they can find me.”

Matt: You heard me say earlier that Tracey’s been doing real estate safety training for almost three decades. It’s always been a hard sell. “Safety isn’t sexy,” she says. You heard her say that right at the top of the show today. Well, Tracey had one of those “aha moments” about five or six years ago, a colleague told her and I’m quoting right here, “I’d love to hire you, but agents won’t show up for training unless you’re teaching them how to make more money.” So, Tracey had to think about how safety could be, not just about preservation and protection, but also about profit.

Her safety training now includes some smart ways to do that, to make safety part of your business. In just a moment, you’re gonna hear Tracey talk about a couple different handouts that she offers in her workshops. Well, here’s a special offer just for you as a Walkthrough™ listener. You can go to Tracey’s website and request the Safety Tips for FSBO’s handout yourself. I’ll post the link to do that in our Facebook group today at 12 noon Pacific time. But even without the handouts, listen closely as we wrap up the conversation. I bet some light bulbs are about to go off over your head.

Tracey: How can I teach agents to grow their business with this training? So, I created the country’s only Real Estate Safety Designation. And I built in ways for agents to serve the consumer, how to use safety training, not only to save their own lives, but how to use it to stand out from the other 1.6 million members of the National Association of Realtors.

How do you stand out in your area? So, that’s when I said, “Here’s what we’re going to do. I’m going to create these handouts and these marketing tools for you to use with the consumer. That’s the buyer. That’s the seller. That’s even the FSBO. Here are safety tips and sheets that I’ve created for you. Not only that, I’m going to tell you how to use them.” So, Matt, I am teaching them how to add loyalty to those relationships, how to use safety for lead gen.

When they’re out handing out [these] safety tips to FSBOs with their business card attached to it, their business card rises to the top of the stack when that FSBO sees these 13 safety tips that they never thought about. Don’t open your doors to strangers, which is what they’re doing. Don’t let people know you’re home alone. Don’t show alone. Put your valuables away. So, by the time they get to number 13, they’re thinking, “I thought I could save the commission, that this would be as easy as sticking a sign into the yard.” So, what I have shown them, and I help real estate agents show them, is that what you’re doing is dangerous. There are real estate agents who are trained to be safe. So, things like that to help them to lead gen, as well as to stay in constant touch with the consumer.

Matt: We are all about being different and standing out from the crowd on this podcast. I say it in every episode that that’s why this podcast exists, help you grow your business, help you stand out from the crowd. What I’m hearing you saying is you can teach agents how to use safety. Well, I mean, the example you used was how to use safety to maybe convince a FSBO that they should actually list with you as the agent.

Tracey: Exactly. Even the seller, think about listing presentations. When agents show up for a listing presentation, they know that, and especially in this market now, no matter how much it cools off, even before –that that seller is probably interviewing a couple of other agents. So, the question is, what can a safety-trained agent do to stand out from the other two agents? What can they walk in the door saying differently?

That’s where I created the [safe] Seller Security Checklist. So, they walk in the door, and they’re not immediately talking about, “Here’s how we’re going to market your house. We’re going to do a virtual tour. We’re going to do open houses.” No, no. The agent who is safety-trained is walking in with the security checklist and they’re saying, “Here’s what we need to do to make sure you are safe, your family is safe, and your possessions are safe and secure while your house is on the market.”

(Matt: Hi, this is Matt McGee. Before new clients contact you, many will go online to check out your reviews. Guess what? The same thing happens in podcasting. Before an agent decides to listen to “The Walkthrough™,” many will check out the reviews from current listeners. So, I have a favor to ask, if you enjoy and get value from “The Walkthrough™,” please rate and review us in whatever app you use to listen, whether it’s Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or any other app. It’s easy to do. You’ll be helping us and helping other agents at the same time. And that’s what we call a win-win.)

(SHORT MUSIC TRANSITION)

They call her Tracey, The Safety Lady for a reason, and now you know why, as well. So much great information, so much important information, right? Well, Tracey offers safety workshops for real estate brokerages, local associations, boards, you name it. She can even do a custom workshop for whatever your group might look like.

If you want to connect with her, if you wanna get more information about that, if you wanna book Tracey to speak, take a look at today’s show notes. We’ll have links in there to her company website. It’s called Safety and Security Source. We’ll also have links to her social media and more so you can get in touch. All right. It is time for our takeaways segment. Again, this week, so, so much to choose from. But here is what stood out to me from episode 89, all about agent safety with Tracey Hawkins.

Takeaway number one: Trust your gut. Tracey talked about how we humans, we’re the only living creatures who ignore our survival instincts because we don’t want to offend the other person. Or in real estate, because we don’t want to lose a potential lead. “Always listen to your gut when something seems off,” she said. That new lead is not worth your life.

Takeaway number two: Tracey shared just a bunch of safety tips for open houses, way too many to recap here. The one that I love the most was the tip to put out signs that say, “Smile, you’re on camera,” remember that? Put one at the front door, scatter them around the house. The idea is to deter any would-be criminal who visits.

Takeaway number three: She also shared a bunch of great tips for when you meet a new client for the first time, starting with “Go online and research the person.”  Tracey also mentioned an app called Forewarn, which lets you easily do background checks on people before you meet them. And then, I liked the script that she shared. As soon as you meet the person, you say something like, “Our company safety policy requires me to check in with the office.” And then you call a colleague. I think that’s a pretty strong message that you take safety seriously.

Takeaway number four: When it comes to showing houses again, lots and lots of great advice. The one I loved was the tip about knowing your exits. Tracey mentioned neighborhood exits in case you have to drive away quickly for some reason, but also know the exits inside the home. And then this was great, “Always let the client go into each room first while you stay near the doorway.” That way you don’t get trapped.

And takeaway number five: Safety is a hard sell. So, Tracey teaches agents how you can use it to make more money. She talked about giving FSBOs a safety checklist with your business card. It’s a way to suggest that they shouldn’t be listing their home without some professional help from you. She also shared some ideas on making homeowner safety part of your listing presentation, as well. All of that, great way to grow your business and be different from other agents. Go back and re-listen to that if you need to hear it again. So, so much great stuff in this episode. Those are my takeaways this week.

What were your takeaways? I’d love to hear from you. There’s a couple of different ways you can get in touch. You can leave a voicemail or send me a text. The number’s 415-322-3328. You can send an email to walkthrough[at]homelight.com. Or tell me what your takeaways are when you join our Facebook mastermind group. Go to Facebook, do a search for HomeLight Walkthrough™ and the group should come right up.

That’s all for this week. Thanks so much to Tracey Hawkins for joining me, and thank you for listening. Hey, if you learned something today, if you got something of value from this episode, let me ask a favor again. You just heard that little 30-second voiceover I did, right? I would really love it, really appreciate it, if you would rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen. That would mean a lot to us. And also while you’re there, hit that follow button so that you get all of our future shows automatically.

My name’s Matt McGee. You’ve been listening to The Walkthrough™. At HomeLight, we believe in real estate agents. We’re here to explore how great agents grow their business, stand out from the crowd, and become irreplaceable. Go out and sell some homes. Be safe doing it. I’ll talk to you again next week. Bye-bye.

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