The real estate industry changed after an agent was killed on the job — but safety threats remain

The fatal shooting of a 27-year-old real estate agent during an open house in Iowa in 2011 shook his industry, which responded with a series of measures aimed at ensuring the safety of others in the profession.

But in interviews with NBC News after an arrest last week in the long-pending case, some in the industry said the barrage of threats and risks persisted and that nothing had been done to protect the officers.

Gavin Blair, CEO of the Iowa Association of Realtors, described Ashley Okland’s murder as a “worst-case scenario” that has pushed the industry to confront the sometimes dangerous reality of real estate work with a “safety commitment” to best practices.

What has emerged in the years since Okland’s death is work that, in some ways, might be unrecognizable to past generations of agents. Many now carry guns or other means of protection, according to a survey released two years ago by the nation’s largest real estate organization, the National Association of Realtors.

In interviews, some agents said they screen potential clients through a background check service before they even speak. Some require identification in advance for visits and refuse to park in driveways to avoid being surrounded by a possible attacker. Such measures are included in the commitment.

Beth Andress, who with her husband Rob Andress teaches violence prevention and self-defense to real estate professionals in Canada and the United States, described the potential dangers agents face. as urgent and said certain safety measures should be required by law and not just recommended.

“We really need to understand that real estate is one of the only professions where you meet strangers alone in private, enclosed spaces, without a standardized screening process,” Beth Andress said. “The entire industry has normalized this risk, so many people don’t even recognize it anymore.”

In a statement, a spokesperson for the National Association of Realtors said the organization “is committed to the well-being and safety of its members, with a continued emphasis on providing resources, education and research to support real estate professionals in the field. We strongly encourage state and local associations, brokerages and members to keep safety top of mind every day of the year.”

Make a deal or stay safe

Data included in the association’s 2024 survey – the most recent – ​​shows that almost a quarter of the 1,423 people surveyed experienced a situation that made them fear for their personal safety or that of their personal information. This number remained unchanged from the previous year, according to the survey.

Nearly half of those surveyed said their brokerage did not have security procedures in place or that they were unaware of these protocols. Forty percent said they met a new or potential client alone in a remote location. Nearly half said they had shown a vacant property in an area with poor or no cell coverage in the last year.

The association’s spokesperson said the data shows progress compared to previous years, “highlighting the importance of ongoing training and tools that support officer safety in real-world conditions.”

For Katy Caldwell, a longtime Louisiana agent and co-host of the real estate podcast “Hustle Humblely,” the data shows something else.

“There is no radical change in the behavior of agents, because it is a very cutthroat industry,” she said. “The vast majority of agents barely make a livable wage. You really don’t want to turn away potential business.”

But because these security recommendations are not mandatory, she explained, agents may forgo them, fearing losing business with possible clients who are not accustomed to providing identification before a visit, for example. Or, those potential customers may simply walk away if the process isn’t what they’re used to, she said.

Other officers described the security push and the need to reach a deal as a sometimes complicated balancing act.

Alex Harper, an agent in Texas, has a solid security checklist. She often carries a gun, she said, and uses an app to run background checks on any phone numbers she doesn’t recognize. If she meets a man for a screening, she says, she will have someone with her. She never parks in driveways, she said, and whenever she enters a vacant house alone, she locks the door behind her.

“We were given the safety pledge to do your best to be safe,” she said. “But at the same time, we have a fiduciary duty to our clients to sell their property. The wording and the verbiage and the way these listing agreements read is like you’re going to do your best to sell this property, and that means if someone calls you, you’re going to show it.”

The unpredictable nature of the work can easily alter the best-laid plans, said Chelsea Pearson, an agent in North Carolina who has her own safety checklist that includes carrying several “items” to protect herself during screenings.

“You might be showing a house and you only intend to show that one house, but then the client decides they want to see another house,” she said. “And so it adds to your day and it’s hard to be able to plan for it.”

Another factor that could push agents — especially younger ones — to cut deals at the expense of security is the company’s commission-based structure, Harper said. Because agents are independent contractors, she added, they may have less support than employees.

Kristi Gonzales, a longtime agent in Texas, said her brokerage, where Harper works, is strong on security issues — a much different reality than when she started in the industry nearly two decades ago. At the time, she said, there was no emphasis on safety.

It wasn’t until after Okland’s murder, Gonzales said, that she began to take the issue seriously.

“We don’t realize how vulnerable we are on a daily basis just to do our jobs,” she said.

The Iowa murder that shook the industry

Okland was working for Iowa Realty, the state’s largest real estate company, when she was killed on April 8, 2011. At the time, she was working an open house at a townhouse development in West Des Moines.

Authorities have released few details about his death, including a possible motive.

The woman accused of his murder, Kristin Ramsey, began working for a title and escrow company owned by Iowa Realty in the months after Okland’s death, Iowa Realty said last week. Ramsey, 53, has been held in a Dallas County, Iowa, jail since March 17, with bail set at $2 million.

“Like everyone in our community, we are understandably stunned,” Iowa Realty said in a statement after Ramsey’s arrest.

In a filing last week, Ramsey’s lawyers said she has no criminal record and a “transparent” employment history since graduating from community college. She “categorically” maintains her innocence, the file indicates.

Harper, one of the Texas agents, said she was in her senior year of high school when Okland was killed and already knew she wanted to become a real estate agent. Now 31, she said that in her 13 years on the job, she has had more than 30 uncomfortable experiences.

Among them, she said, was a series of calls from a man who spoofed different phone numbers and began by asking real estate questions. Those conversations escalated into vulgar comments, she said.

The calls began at 4 a.m. from a number that spoofed her office phone, Harper said, and they didn’t end until months later, after she used an app that revealed the man’s real phone number and her husband confronted him.

Assaults, kidnappings, murder plots

In the Realtors Association survey, fewer than 4 percent of respondents identified themselves as victims of crime — a category that includes identity theft, robbery, assault and unidentified crimes. Last year, media reports across the United States showed allegations of agents being sexually assaulted, kidnapped and physically assaulted at open houses, showings and at a vacant house.

In Texas, a man was charged after allegedly sticking his camera up an agent’s skirt during a screening. In Minnesota, a man was sentenced to life in prison for plotting the murder of a real estate agent in part by luring him to a fake showing.

Beth Andress said she and her husband met hundreds of real estate professionals victims of criminal acts. The most common complaint was sexual harassment and assault, she said, and the majority of victims did not report their allegations to their agencies or authorities, often because they thought they would not be taken seriously or for fear of having a reputation for reporting “sexual advances.”

The key to preventing most of these situations, she says, is stricter workplace safety rules. Among the measures that should be required, they said, are safety education and standardized safety protocols at brokerages, she said. Officers should also have to ask for identification before meetings and they should be trained on how to check it, she said.

“Right now, that decision is left up to the individual agent, and it’s inconsistent across the industry,” she said. “Some officers ask for ID, some don’t, and that inconsistency puts lives at risk. It’s not about complicating things, it’s about creating a baseline where there is accountability before the meeting even takes place.”