Central Ohio realtors plan to offer a new feature aimed at improving the safety of real estate agents, after an Arkansas real estate agent was kidnapped and killed in late 2014. Jim Letizia reports.
A survey conducted last year by the National Association of Realtors shows 40 percent of agents have experienced a situation that made them uncomfortable. 4 percent of the 28 hundred agents surveyed said they had the been a victim of crime. But HER Realtors says it's providing a security phone app for all of its 12 hundred Ohio agents. And the board of the Ohio Association of Realtors has voted to make one component of the app available to all agents in the state. The app provides a list of nearby safe harbor sites for meeting strangers, alerts offices and colleagues an agent is meeting with a client and provides a panic button for agents. The app was under development when Arkansas real estate agent Beverly Carter was kidnapped and killed.