Apps the key to agent safety

Crimes against real estate agents are a growing problem, but mobile apps are cropping up to help them stay safe.

The latest is called Forewarn, launching Monday, which allows an agent to enter a prospective client’s phone number ahead of a blind meeting and get an instant background check that looks a lot like a police report.

Forewarn says its app can provide information on 80 percent of callers, ferreting out any criminal history, and verifying car and home ownership, mortgage liens and whether a person has filed for bankruptcy. It can also pull up address histories and other phone numbers.

The app is available only to licensed real estate agents, who increasingly are getting calls from clients who have found properties on open listing sites without a broker.

“An unfortunate aspect of the profession requires members to meet strangers,” said Sara Wiskerchen, a spokeswoman for the National Association of Realtors.

Forewarn, developed by data analytics firm Cogint, estimates that agents are now scheduling 40 to 50 percent of their showings with people who have not been pre-vetted by another agent.

Sitting in apartments and homes at publicly advertised open houses, agents can feel like sitting ducks, as they often wear expensive jewelry and drive luxury cars to meetings in secluded neighborhoods.

Over the past few years, several real estate agents across the country have been murdered, raped and robbed.

Half the NAR’s Realtors responding to its 2017 Member Safety Report said they try to first meet their potential clients in neutral settings.

Nationwide, the survey found 16 percent pack a pistol, 19 percent carry pepper spray and 5 percent have Tasers. But such weapons are either restricted or forbidden outright in key markets — including New York City.