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

The fatal shooting of a 27-year-old real estate agent at an open house in Iowa in 2011 shook his industry, which responded with measures aimed at keeping others on the job safe.

But in interviews with NBC News after last week’s arrest in the long-running case, some in the industry said numerous threats and dangers persist and not enough is being done to protect agents.

Gavin Blair, CEO of the Iowa Association of Realtors, described the killing of Ashley Okland as a “horrific situation” that pushed the industry to face the sometimes dangerous reality of real estate with a “safeguard” of best practices.

What has emerged in the years since Okland’s death is a career that, in some ways, may not have been seen in previous 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 association, the National Association of Realtors.

In interviews, some agents said they check prospective clients with a background check service before speaking. Others need to identify the exhibits in advance and refuse to park in driveways to prevent them from being boxed in by a potential victim. Such steps are included in the promise.

Beth Andress, along with her husband, Rob Andress, who teaches violence prevention and self-defense to housing professionals in Canada and the US, explained the potential dangers of agents. as urgent and he said that certain safety measures should be required by law, not just recommended.

“We really need to understand that real estate is one of the only things where you meet strangers alone in private, closed-off places, without a standard vetting process,” Beth Andress said. “The whole industry is used to that risk, so most people don’t see that risk anymore.”

In a statement, a spokesperson for the National Association of Realtors said the organization is “dedicated to the well-being and safety of its members, with an ongoing focus on providing resources, education, and research to support real estate professionals in the field.”

Making a deal or staying safe

Data from the organization’s 2024 survey – the most recent – shows that nearly a quarter of the 1,423 respondents have experienced a situation that made them fear for their personal safety or the safety of their information. That number was unchanged from the previous year, the survey shows.

Almost half of respondents said their brokerage either did not have security procedures in place or were unaware of these regulations. 40 percent said they met a new customer or prospective customer in private. About half said they had shown a vacant lot in an area with poor or no cell coverage at all in the past year.

A spokesperson for the agency said the data shows progress over the years, “underscoring the importance of continuing education and tools that support agent safety in real-world situations.”

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

“There is no big change in the behavior of agents, because it is a high-quality industry,” he said. “Most agents don’t make a living wage. You really don’t want to turn away potential business.”

But since those security recommendations aren’t required, he said, agents can forgo them, fearing lost business from customers who might not normally provide identification before a showing, for example. Or those customers may just walk away if the process isn’t something they’re used to, she said.

Some agents described the push for security and the need to compromise as a sometimes complex balancing act.

Alex Harper, an agent in Texas, has a strong safety checklist. He often carries a gun, he said, and uses an app to do background checks on any phone numbers he doesn’t know. If he meets a man to show off, he said, he will have someone to tag along with. He never parks in driveways, he said, and whenever he walks into an empty house alone, he closes the door behind him.

“We’ve been given a safety oath that says, hey, do everything you can to be safe,” he said. “But at the same time, we have a fiduciary duty to our clients to sell their property. The phrasing and the wording and the way these listing agreements are read is like, you’re going to do everything in your power to sell this property, and that means if somebody calls you, you’re going to show it.”

An unexpected job situation can easily undo well-laid plans, says Chelsea Pearson, a North Carolina agent whose safety checklist includes carrying several “things” to keep safe during the show.

“You may be out showing a home, and you only have plans to show one home, but the customer decides they want to see another home,” he said. “And it’s just added to your day and it’s hard to plan well.”

Another factor that could force agents – especially smaller ones – to make deals at the cost of security is the commission-based structure of the business, Harper said. Because agents are independent contractors, he added, they may have less support than employees.

Kristi Gonzales, a longtime agent in Texas, said her brokerage, which Harper works for, is strict on safety issues — a stark contrast to when she first started in the industry nearly two decades ago. Back then, he said, there was no emphasis on safety.

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

“We don’t see how much we are in danger every day to do our jobs,” he said.

The Iowa killings shook the industry

Okland worked for Iowa Realty, the largest real estate company in the state, when he was killed on April 8, 2011. At the time, he was working on an open house in a downtown development in West Des Moines.

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

The woman charged with the murder, Kristin Ramsey, started working for Iowa Realty, a subsidiary of Iowa Realty, Iowa Realty said last week. Ramsey, 53, has been held in the Dallas County, Iowa, jail since March 17, with bail set at $2 million.

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

In a filing last week, Ramsey’s attorneys said he has no criminal record and an “unblemished” employment history since graduating from community college. He “definitely” maintains his innocence, the report said.

Harper, one of the Texas agents, said he was a senior in high school when Oakland was killed and already knew he wanted to be a real estate agent. Now 31 years old, he said that in the 13 years he has been on the job, he has faced more than 30 painful situations.

Among them, he said, there are a number of phone calls from a man who scams different phone numbers and starts by asking about housing. Those conversations turned into profanity, he said.

The calls started at 4 a.m. from a number that messed up her office phone, Harper said, and didn’t stop until several months later, after she used an app that exposed the man’s real phone number and her husband confronted her.

Attacks, kidnappings, assassination plots

In a Realtors association survey, less than 4% of respondents identified themselves as victims of crime – a category that includes identity theft, robbery, assault and misdemeanor crime. Media reports from across the United States in the past year have shown allegations of sexual assault, kidnapping and beatings at open houses, fairs and vacant homes.

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

Beth Andress said she and her husband met hundreds of real estate professionals are victims of crime. The most common complaint was sexual harassment and beatings, he said, and most victims did not report their allegations to retail companies or authorities, often because they felt they would not be taken seriously or for fear of creating a reputation for reporting “sexual acts.”

For him, the key to preventing most of these situations is strict workplace safety regulations. Among the measures that should be required, they said, is security education and standard security rules for all brokerages, he said. Agents should also ask for identification before meetings and should be trained on how to verify it, she said.

“Right now, that decision is left up to each agent, and it’s not industry-wide,” he said. “Some agents ask for ID, some don’t, and that inconsistency puts lives at risk. This isn’t about making things difficult – it’s about creating a foundation where there’s accountability before a meeting happens.”