Bill, You bring up some great points.  I can't say that I never ride clients in my car because I have a lot of out of town people with no transportation but I don't take them alone.  If they are local buyers, I have them bring their own car.

Hi Bill,

Hum, I've never thought about it that way. With your background, you can certainly speak from experience. Now if they've (the buyers) made an appointment with you, have their car parked in your office parking lot, you still feel it's not safe to put someone in your car?

In addition I guess you wouldn't have the same liability in an accident if they're not in your car riding with you. Guess that could be another reason too. Thanks for the info!

Yes, liability is another big issue that you need to consider.  I meet them at the office first, and then I have them follow me to the properties that we are going to see.  It's a double safety measure, because if they are going to cause trouble, they probably won't want to meet me at the office in the first place where there are multiple "witnesses".

Bill,

Double Ditto on your post.  I am a retired Washington State Patrol Sergeant (26 years) and wholeheartedly agree.  I also google all new clients, check tax records for addresses, and find out from whoever referred them to me about them.  Few more tips.

List and Sell (Safety Always)  Gary @ RentonHomeFinder

Excellent advice! I have a simple question I always ask myself: "Is it worth the risk?"

The answer is clearly "No", but by asking myself this basic question, I can more easily clear all the reasons out of my head as to why I should be taking such risks with my safety and overall liability.

What a world we live in.  I understand being careful but "never" is a hard approach.  It seems there can be a policy of checking someone out and then being reasonable about applying the policy.  Of course, I qualify this by saying I am in the rental business and we meet prospects at the property.  But when we get out of the car we are with them alone for a few minutes.  If we were unwiling to do this, we would not be able to make a living.  I would hate to base my business model of the last newspaper headline.

Just a bit off topic but I have a friend that recently moved here. He runs a special website and part of it has the national sex offender registry in it. It is a free community website linked to almost all the subdivisions in the Upstate as well as hundreds across the country. He to was in law enforcement. If you would like to check it out here is the link:

http://www.linkingcommunities.com/marketing/default.aspx

Mark

Thanks for the link Mark!  I'll check it out.