Gina Branch

It’s REALTOR® Safety Month again.  Time to stop and take a look at the ways we do business and to find ways to reduce our personal risk. 

I was talking to a member of the local association and he was advocating that every agent should have a concealed handgun license and carry while working.   I am a firm supporter of the Second Amendment, support the right to carry, and I am personally licensed.  I have 21 years of military training and education on the Use of Deadly Force and some 30-plus years of experience carrying and handling weapons. In those 30-plus years of carrying as a civilian, I’ve only drawn a weapon twice and never fired a shot other than my monthly trips to the range.

If agents want to get licensed and carry, I’m okay with it. But they have to understand the huge responsibility and liability that go along with that choice. I’m also a firm believer that they should do more than simply get licensed and start carrying.  Time should be spent at the local range getting familiar with the weapon.  We hear all the time about accidental discharges. There’s no such thing in my opinion. I call them negligent discharges. Weapons safety is always critical but even more so around other people.

Personally I never want to have to shoot someone.  Escape is always a better option. You have to be alert and active. Always look for a way out before you go into a situation. I tell agents leaving the building at night to grab a cup of hot coffee from our single serving machine on the way out.  If confronted, splash the scalding coffee in the face of the attacker and escape.

One of my buyer’s agents was meeting a client at one of our properties. When she got there the client known to us was not around but a man approached her saying she was the client’s spouse. He want to go in and take a look before his spouse arrived.  My agent was quick on her feet and told him she would rather go through the “Information About Brokerage Services” form and get that reviewed and signed while they waited on the client. The client did show up and all was okay.  The agent did the right thing. She stayed outside where she could escape if something went wrong.

I think situational awareness and looking for the escape is far better than any kind of armed confrontation. 

Would you carry a firearm while working?

What we started over a month ago became a reality this afternoon.  We recently purchased a SMART Car for use in our business. The car is unique and where ever you go someone wants to stop and talk to you.

One of our initial ideas was to wrap it as part of our local marketing efforts.  It seemed like a natural way to combine the uniqueness of the car with some marketing for the team.

After interviewing a number of companies who could wrap the SMART Car, we selected SkinzWraps. Located in Dallas, SkinzWraps has a nice product and lots of experience with SMART Cars. 

Our first meeting with their design staff resulted in a couple of draft ideas. We really pushed them to think out of the box and to come up with something as unique as the car itself.

In the end, they came up with a design that met those requirements.  The SMART Car is anything but fast. In fact it scored number one on fuel economy for traditional gasoline engines and was dead last for the quarter mile. Skinzwraps has experience wrapping NASCAR race cars so they came up with the idea to wrap the SMART Car as a RE/MAX sponsored race car. 

We sold a few advertising spaces to some of our ancillary service venders to offset the costs. You’ll see their advertisements on the front air-dam and front fenders. 

We’ll have to see how the public reception goes over the next few weeks.