September is Realtor Safety Month, and real estate agents have a burgeoning number of safety apps they can use to help protect themselves when on the job.
Franchisor Windermere Real Estate is beta-testing yet another mobile app, React Mobile, with 150 agents of its hometown Seattle agents.
React Mobile — available on iOS and Android — is free. It stands out from other safety apps with the $59 “React Sidekick” device, which features an easily accessible panic button that alerts users’ emergency contacts via text and email with their GPS location when pressed. Users can also broadcast the alert on Twitter and Facebook.
The app includes a tracking feature that allows users to share their real-time location with their emergency network.
| Safety app (or app featuring safety features) | Description |
|---|---|
| AgentPair | AgentPair, an app designed to connect buyers with agents, includes an alert mechanism to inform team members of when agents arrive and leave a client meeting. |
| “Agent.Watch” from Kunversion | “Agent.Watch” turns agents’ smartphones into security cameras. If agents press an alert button, the app sends a notification with the agent’s location, along with the video and photos captured during the agent’s showing, to specified contacts. |
| Companion | The Companion app allows users to designate a digital “companion” who can monitor their activity while in a potentially dangerous situation. |
| Curb Call | The agent-buyer matchmaking app includes a safety feature that will automatically alert an agent’s personal emergency contact and their office when they leave a showing without indicating on the app that the showing has ended. |
| “Safety Timer” and “Distress Alert” from Homesnap | With Homesnap’s “Safety Timer,” agents can set a timer; if they don’t disarm it in the allotted time, the app alerts emergency contacts. “Distress Alert” helps agents broadcast to emergency contacts that they’re in a dangerous situation. |
| React Mobile | Pairs with a panic button device. Also allows users to share their real-time location with emergency contacts. |
| Real Agent Guard | The app alerts agents’ networks when they fail to shut off a safety timer before it expires. It also includes a live video feed product that allows agents’ brokerages or teams to monitor them in an open house. |
| Real Safe Agent | The app helps agents vet unknown clients and streamlines connection with contacts around safety. |
| SafeTrek | SafeTrek features a panic button that can alert local authorities of emergencies. |
| Secure Show | Secure Show helps agents determine whether the people a real estate agent plans to meet are who they say they are. |
| Verify Photo ID | Verify Photo ID checks identities against sex offender and property databases. |
Source: Inman
React Mobile smartphone requirements: IPhone must be 4S edition or later; Android phones must support LE Bluetooth 4.0.