Welcome to the Real Tea Podcast, brought to you by Tennessee Realtors.
I’m your host, Angela Shields.
This podcast is created for Tennessee Realtors to get the tea on all things real estate in Tennessee.
We’ll bring you engaging conversations with esteemed guests in the real estate industry and cover a wide array of topics, including current events, governmental affairs, education, and legal updates.
We are excited to have Chris Garrett with us today.
Welcome, Chris.
Thank you.
To the Real Tea.
And Chris is a man of many hats.
Not only does he serve as the 2025 first vice president for Tennessee Realtors, he also serves as the 2025 Realtor Safety Advisory Committee Chair for the National Association of Realtors.
And he is the co-owner at Weichert Realty, the Andrews Group.
So many things going on right now.
He will be president of the Tennessee Realtors in 2026.
So we have a lot going on.
A lot going on.
Yeah.
So before we get going, I like to ask my guest, what tea do you prefer in your cup?
Coffee.
Coffee, not even tea.
Not tea, coffee, black, no sugar, no cream.
It’s just simple.
That’s, that’s all right by me because I like my coffee too.
Cappuccino in particular.
So Chris, you have become what’s known for us is an expert on safety.
And you have a great background to get to that point.
So let’s talk about how you got so familiar with safety and what brought you to be able to talk to us about safety.
Yeah, sure.
You know, I’ve been in real estate.
So I started my career in 2005.
So almost almost 19 years in September.
Well, this this month, 19 years.
And along the way, I’d kind of always had an interest in law enforcement and got a chance to become a reserve deputy with the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office.
And I did that for about four years.
So I really got to see behind the scenes of what it was like to be a police officer, get to see, I got to see my community in a whole different light.
In 2015, I left the reserves and just, you know, continued in real estate.
Well, about the same time you had, you know, the Beverly Carter death and Chris Polycrine, the NAR president that year, came out in January and was like, we want a safety, you know, course that we can teach to our associations.
By mid-year, so he put a really short time frame on it.
Well, my name was thrown in the hat because kind of being intertwined into both industries, it got a chance to be a subject matter expert for the original safety course that was produced in 2015.
Fast forward today, I’ve now become an instructor and I’ve really basically taught the course.
I was not an instructor before that.
Very quickly had to become one, but I’ve taught the course since then.
And it’s just become something that’s really near and dear to my heart, because I think there’s a lot of agents that go out there with the right motive, but they don’t understand some of the dangers in how they do their business.
So really just to keep them safe as they go about helping their clients every day.
Yeah, the world’s changed so much, and I think there’s so many times that you don’t realize the position you put yourself, I mean, just walking out the front door.
And so really thinking about safety is so key to our industry today.
But it’s neat how the past kind of crosses with your today with your experience.
So, I know we’ve used you as an instructor, and you do such a great job and we appreciate that so much.
But let’s talk about, let’s kind of jump in and spend our time talking about things our members need to know, because recently you’ve been on a panel for us, and there were so many great tips that came out of that panel, and I think it’s just important that we really kind of jump into that.
So, I know we’ve had a conversation about the new practice changes, and something you bring up quite often is the practice change is an opportunity for members to even keep them safe a little, keep themselves a little safer.
So, let’s talk about why you feel that way.
Well, in the safety realm, we’ve always taught you need to meet that client in a public place or in your office first.
I kinda see that as the foundation of a client intake.
And I think a lot of times what happens, especially with newer agents, they’re very excited.
They need to have something closed.
They’re very excited about working with a new client.
They get a call and a listing, and they’re eager just to run over and open the door up for someone.
So, we really teach you need to set down and meet that client first.
So, with the new rules changes, it really mandates that you sit down and have an intake and you fill out a touring form.
So, you really get to know that client in a public place.
To know who you’re dealing with.
Who are you opening that door to an empty home and spending a half hour, an hour with, do you know that person?
I think that’s the foundation of it.
That’s a great point.
Because you can invite them to your office.
Yes.
Or like you said, a public place.
And I know a lot of times I’ve often heard, it’s a great idea to make copies of their driver’s license.
And so, you can just kind of embed that into your standard routine.
Right.
And I think, I love that you use standard routine.
We should have a process in everything we do.
I think because so many realtors are wired to be just entrepreneurs, blow and go, and we’re running, and we’re in our car, and we’re constantly on the move.
But really starting, I call it like a doctor-nurse process.
So if you go to the doctor, no matter how many times I’ve been to my doctor, and I’ve been often, I know them, I know the doctor well, but I can’t call the doctor up and go, hey, I want to see you.
And he go, well, don’t worry about it.
I’ll just meet you over at Walmart, and I’ll bring my stethoscope.
So you have to go into the office, you have to meet the receptionist, you have to fill out paperwork every time.
Then you meet the, so it’s a process.
And so I think that’s a really good industry to mimic on how to create a process as an agent to intake everyone.
And then it makes you really consistent in how you do business.
So it’s funny how the safer your business is, really the more professional it is as well.
Right, and the broker can set those policies for all of their agents in the office so that everybody’s practicing the same way.
Yes, and they should.
The broker should have a safety policy for liability reasons.
And not only that, they want their agents to have a higher success rate.
So if you go and run and meet someone that you’ve never met, you haven’t verified, you haven’t vetted them, they’ve not been pre-approved, you don’t really know who you’re working with.
So this process really puts you in a position where you have a higher likelihood of having success with that client, on top of being safe, right?
Well, and one more point to that, you’re treating everybody the same way.
So there goes your discrimination practices that you could be accused of.
Yeah, and that’s key.
And as you build your safety protocol, that’s the key thing is you’ve got to treat everyone the same way, because you don’t want to violate fair housing.
So having a protocol that you operate the same way with every client that you intake.
Right, so if that is a showing practice, let’s talk about listing practices.
How would you implement safety practices into a listing?
Yeah, the listing is interesting because most people don’t think of a listing as being a potential hazard.
So think about who’s calling you.
Does the name, so your initial research should be, you go to the tax record, does the name of the person that called you match the tax record?
Do a little bit of verifying before you go and meet them.
And here’s the thing, I think a lot of agents think, I’m gonna meet that person in their home for the first appointment.
You still don’t have to.
I could have my first appointment in my office for a listing appointment.
I could bring them in and meet them.
That’s up to that individual agent and that company’s policy, but there are ways to still keep yourself safe because there’s been many cases where people were lured into a home that may have been vacant by someone that did not own the home, and then they were attacked in that home.
So that’s still something we really gotta pay attention to.
Right.
And we’ll talk about that in just a moment about some of the other things you can do, but I think that people just don’t think about it when they think about, I’m going to list a home.
It’s usually when you’re showing homes, you hear about stories and open houses.
So open houses are huge, especially right now.
So what are some things with open houses you would recommend?
And we do a lot of open houses.
So we really dialed in how we approach open houses.
So one of the things I would say is something that’s important to do when you think about doing an open house is you’re going to open that home up and you really can’t control who comes into the home.
So having a buddy system.
So one important thing is to have a lender, a title company, an insurance agent, one of the agents in your office, your spouse, a friend, an agent that you partner with that will be there with you at the home.
So there’s a few reasons, obviously safety being foremost.
Another reason is if you have two or three different families coming through the home or potential buyers coming through the home, you can’t talk to them all.
You don’t know where they’re at.
You’ve lost one of them upstairs.
Now it’s safety for the seller, so their belongings.
Is there someone roaming around the house?
You haven’t written their name down, you don’t know who they are, and now they’re walking through their home alone.
So there’s a lot of different reasons why it’s really important to have enough people in the open house in order to keep you safe.
Because what we find is most predators are looking for a soft target, they’re not looking for a fight, so just having one person there extra, a lot of times is a detourant.
Right, and I’ve heard you say tips like just going around the neighborhood and letting people know that you’re going to be there.
Absolutely, door knock the neighborhood.
I mean, it’s funny how it’s always a two-fold purpose, since you’re getting your name out there, but also you’re letting the neighbors know that you’re gonna be there at that open house, so they can be aware that your car’s gonna be there, kind of check on you.
If they keep looking over there and it’s way past the open house and your car’s still there, maybe there’s a problem.
And you can even mention that.
Hey, I’m gonna be over there.
I should be wrapped up by four o’clock.
If you see my car there at five, come over and check on me.
So that’s really a great way to get to know the neighborhood.
And another tip that I heard on the panel was, and I’ve never heard this before, was that you could call the police and let them know that you’re holding the open house.
Yes, so the police have a, each one of them has a zone that they work in, and you can ask for what’s called an extra patrol.
And it’s really basically a line item in their book every day, that they’ve got to go by and check on that property.
You can do it, and honestly, you can do it when you’re on vacation.
If you’re gonna be away for a week, then you can have them come check on your property.
But during the open house, it’s really important because they come by, they really pay attention to the open house.
You can invite them in if they stop to the open house.
It’s a good chance to build some rapport with the officers in the neighborhood.
But also, if there’s someone that’s looking to do a crime, that’s gonna be a huge deterrent.
I loved what I heard you say, that you could invite them in to have some snacks.
Absolutely.
Bathroom break.
Their car’s their office.
They’re usually working 10, 12 hour shifts, and they’re riding around in the car for a lot of that time.
So yeah, they welcome a change to be able to get out into the communities.
And they really, a lot of the officers really love working in the neighborhood.
So it gives them a chance to get out of their car, get into the neighborhood, you know, into the neighborhoods.
And so it’s a win for you and, you know, the department.
So great idea.
Great idea.
We’ve also had the opportunity at that last, at Ten Sites.
We were, I hate to use the word fortunate enough because it’s a sad story.
But you mentioned Beverly Carter and her son, Carl Carter Jr.
He started a foundation after the loss of his mother ten years ago.
Her story was horrific.
She was showing a home, did everything right.
And we heard the story.
And I know, I believe, correct me if I’m wrong, I believe that was your first time getting to hear the story all the way through.
Yes.
And we learned a lot from that.
What are you using from that story?
You know, some things I thought, and I think it’s interesting, you said she did do a lot of things right.
She did almost everything right.
And at one point, you know, the interesting thing is to realize how hard it is to defend when someone is planning to hurt you, right?
Because you’re at a disadvantage.
Because we’re working so hard to help a family get into a home that we don’t see when there’s a potential danger.
So she was busy finding the home that she would be attacked in.
And that’s really sad when you think of that.
So they were really very purposeful on the type of home they were looking for.
They wanted it to be secluded.
They wanted it to be empty.
They were really picking out the perfect home to commit the crime in.
They had gone so far as to have spoof phone numbers that the area codes matched the town that they said they were from.
They had fake names, but everything.
So they had gone.
They had actually researched her in the tax records to find out how much her home was worth to determine.
They determined she was rich.
And the funny thing was, do you know what her home was worth?
You remember, you heard it.
It was $250,000.
And in their mind, they said, this is a rich agent.
We’re going to take advantage of this.
We’re going to get ransom.
She did some things right.
She locked her purse in the car.
And we always recommend to do that if you’re going to go, don’t carry your purse into the home.
They wanted to take her purse, so they had the cards that they could get ransom money and go and use the cards to take the money.
So, she had actually told them that I have a policy that I don’t meet a man on the first appointment by myself.
And because it was a husband and wife team, the wife said, hey, it’s okay.
I’m coming from work.
I’ll be there too.
And at the last minute, the wife calls and says, I can’t make it.
Can you go through and take pictures?
And it was really sad that I’m thinking to myself, that all makes sense to me.
So at some point, the red flags weren’t going off because it really made sense.
The wife’s calling, all the story seems to check out.
And then she’s attacked at the top of the stairs, on the, in the hallway.
He uses a taser.
They tie her up.
They take her to the home.
And they really ultimately kill her because they realize they’ve forgotten the purse.
And it was in his story, he says, he actually goes back to the house to get her purse and the cops are already there.
And he was really perplexed to how they already knew that they were there.
But they had, you know, she did a lot of things right, but it was just a little bit too late.
It’s tragic.
It was so tragic.
And it’s sad that we have to learn from stories like that.
That that’s where we, it’s just awful.
I know I’ve shared with you a story that I was aware of, of an agent that she had a buyer, that was recommended to her from a family friend, that turned out to be an attacker.
And she was showing a home that was vacant, and again, did everything right.
But it was training from where she had been a flight attendant, that basically ended up saving her, because she had gone through training.
It was a miracle that she survived it, because she was hit over the head with a crowbar, that was discovered in an attic.
And I’ve heard you, when you teach these classes, that you talk about self-defense classes, and how important they are.
Yeah, it’s so important, because a lot of times, the reason we fail is we really don’t have a plan.
Most people are walking around, they don’t know what they would do if they were to be attacked, if they were to be hit in the head, even know how it feels to be grabbed, to be choked, to be struck.
And your response, if you don’t have a flinch response, or a muscle memory response, it’s typically going to be a shutdown response.
So it’s just complete fear takes over.
And it’s interesting, her training really helped her get through that.
And by having consistent training.
So I think, you know, I hear a lot of times that people have like a weekend class, a self-defense class, and I think that’s great.
It’s better than nothing.
But unless you get attacked that weekend, you’re probably not going to remember that.
You know, we always talk about it in martial arts, it’s a perishable skill.
So you have to continue to do something until it becomes muscle memory.
A lot of times people will carry a gun, and they think, I’m going to carry a gun around.
But what I find is most people that carry a gun, they don’t train with it.
They’re not at the range shooting.
They don’t understand how to use it, how to carry it.
A lot of times when you carry a concealed carry gun, there’s no safety mechanisms to keep the gun latched to yourself.
What I mean by that is either in your pocket, it’s in a inside-the-waistband holster, and it can be knocked out.
There’s not safety straps, there’s not, you know, police officers have mechanisms on their holsters that hold that gun in so no one can take it out.
So if you get in a physical altercation with someone and you have a gun, now all of a sudden that gun falls out, now you have a weapon involved.
So really thinking through all the things that people kind of do to make themselves feel safe.
Have it, you know, martial arts does a couple of things.
I would say before martial arts, there’s one simple thing that I would recommend is someone to really be fit enough to run away.
So the clothing that you wear while you’re showing houses, is it clothing that if you had to run, could you run in it?
Is it very restrictive clothing?
So think about that.
I know we have to dress professional, but really thinking about the type of clothing we wear that can we run away.
Do we have the physical stamina to get away?
Because a lot of times, just being able to fight for a moment and get away is enough.
And when it’s not, then you have to go to the next step, which is to have some kind of training to be able to do that.
I always talk about jujitsu.
I think jujitsu is a great thing because it really, if you get grabbed, if you get knocked to the ground, how can you defend yourself?
Especially against a larger opponent, right?
Someone that’s bigger than you, that’s heavier than you, that may have a mental issue, it’s really gonna be hard to get off.
What are some things that you can now do that you’ve practiced every day to defend yourself?
Right.
Should have added that to the mini hatch that you wear, is that you are a martial arts black belt?
No, no, not a black belt.
I’m a green belt in nisedo jujitsu, which is a Japanese jujitsu, and I’ve just started Brazilian jujitsu.
So that’s, you know, just, I like it.
It’s for me, it’s like exercising, it’s a time to have a break.
So I think, you know, I know our audience, they’re stressed, I know what it’s like to do this job every day, and I think you have to have an outlet.
And I think it’s a really good outlet.
And it makes you more confident.
And I think when you kind of have some tools in your toolbox, you’re more confident when you walk around, you carry yourself a little bit differently.
And you certainly have a different ability than when you don’t have that, you know, in your kind of belt of things that you can use.
Sure.
Well, and the clothing is important, you know?
And I think that’s something that we don’t think about.
We think about our appearance and how we present ourselves, but not from a safety perspective.
And as you were talking, I’m thinking to myself, if I were in high heels and needing to run, am I going to run across grass and sink in the mud and trip myself?
So that’s important to think about.
A man, are they going to have certain clothing on that’s going to keep them from being able to sprint as fast as they need to?
Right, absolutely.
Yeah, sure.
There’s so many other stories I know that we’ve heard of that we both have talked about many times, and I know we could sit here and go on and on about all of the different types of stories that we’ve heard.
But before we go down that path, I do want to talk about the fact that there are other things that are under the umbrella of safety that maybe we don’t even think about.
I think we could have this conversation for hours.
But when we’re here, this month is Realtor Safety Month.
There are things that brokers should be thinking about under that umbrella of safety besides just physical safety.
So let’s kind of dive into that for just a moment.
There’s data security, for example.
Right.
Brokers should really be thinking about not only just their data, but also the fact that their agents might have their identity stolen.
Absolutely.
Well, there’s a lot of things when you think about the office.
Say I drop by the office, I’ll just take it from the beginning.
If I drop by the office on a Saturday, and I let myself in, and I go back and I start working, well, if I’ve not locked the door back, does that, you know, like my office is in a strip center, and there’s people that drive up all the time.
So somebody opens up the door, now all of a sudden, you’re in the office by yourself.
Now someone’s entered the house, you know, entered the office, and now you’re in a tough position.
So simple things about having a policy that if you’re gonna work on Saturdays, you come in, you make sure you lock the door behind you.
You go through, you know, knowing, maybe having a chart or something that shows what agents are in the office present or who’s gone.
So when somebody comes in, they go, Oh, there’s people here or there’s no one here today.
So I need to be aware that no one should be in the building.
You know, talking about data security, we’ve really gone away from in the past.
It was like, where do you keep your file cabinets, right?
Don’t keep your file cabinet where everybody can get to it.
So same thing now.
It seems like most brokerages have gone to cloud based storage systems.
So really making sure that the system you use is secure because you have personal data on there just because you’ve paid a subscription.
And you have something on there.
Is it really a secure place to keep customer data?
And the paper trails that you do have at the office, do you have a shred box?
Do you have a company that comes in?
So you’re making sure that anything that’s thrown away, it’s not being thrown in the trash where there’s apps.
You know, we’re dealing with contracts.
We’re dealing with contracts.
Part of that’s confidentiality.
So if I take a contract, I crumple it up and I throw it into the trash can, someone else can grab that.
And all of a sudden I’ve violated probably my fiduciary to my client because I’ve exposed their personal information in a way that I could have handled it better.
Well, and going back to the office, as you were describing, if you’re in the office, is there some sort of a plan for if somebody were to come in and they mean harm, how do we escape?
And having that, when you were talking about practice the other way, do we practice that from time to time?
And everybody knows how to respond to that.
Is there a code word that we can spread around the office that somebody’s in danger?
Absolutely.
There’s so many things that I think we just don’t think through today.
And quite frankly, with all of these school shootings and things like that, it makes you stop and have to realize we live in a different time.
Soft Target, do you have an office admin that’s sitting in that office majority of the day?
You know, we’re in a business that we’re pretty transient.
Like most of our agents come in, they go out.
They don’t really go in and sit in the office and work every day.
So there’ll be times that your office admin or your front desk person may be there alone.
So you’re in a spot where if some, you know, do they get permission to maybe lock the door or have a process that if someone comes in, that there’s a firewall between them and that person, or are they exposed?
So I think that’s, you know, you talked about having a code word.
One of the things that we teach is within the brokerage is having some type of safety system.
So if I’m an agent that’s out showing and I have an issue that pops up and I feel really uncomfortable in the showing, I’m able to call back.
The red folder is one that comes up a lot.
So I’m able to call the office and I might go, hey, I need to grab the tax record.
There’s some information I think you might like.
Now I’m stalling.
I’m going to call my office and go, hey, I need to get the tax record for 123 Main Street.
And it’s in the red folder.
Well, they know immediately I’m in danger.
And then you get the police there.
But I might say yellow folder, which means probably uncomfortable.
Not at the point that I feel like I’m in danger, but maybe I need another body there, just because I feel like something is not right.
Or I might use the green folder, where you have the office incoming call.
So you might plan to go show the house, have your office admin call you five minutes into the show and go, hey, how’s everything going?
You go, oh, it’s in the green folder.
Well, they know that you’re okay.
Yeah.
There’s so many things I think brokers can think through and come up with things like the code words that just are that extra layer, that extra step.
And if the office has not done that, you can even do that with your significant other so that we are making sure that we have a way to check on one another.
Right.
Absolutely.
Best friend, whoever you need to do it with.
But there are other things that I think even thinking through for yourself, the things like the land scams that are happening right now, the Craigslist scams.
There are so many things that, again, we could talk about for hours.
If it’s too good to be true, it’s probably too good to be true, right?
So, really taking the time to vet the people that are calling.
Someone calls in with the land, really taking the time to verify, is that the owner?
Make them, hey, email me a copy of your driver’s license.
But you really have to go pretty deep sometimes to make sure that you’re dealing with the right person.
So, that might be you go visit and talk to some of the neighbors and just make sure, especially if you have someone that’s not going to show up in person and talk to you about listing the house.
So, there’s a lot of scams going around.
And once you sell the property, it’s really tough on the person that you sold their property unbeknownst to them, right?
Yes, it’s always a good thing to verify.
Verify, verify, verify.
So, before we wrap up, is there anything that you’re aware of with the National Association of Realtors Safety Committee that you’re going to be working on or that you’re focused in on that would be helpful for the members to know?
Yeah, I think what most members probably don’t know is that the Safety Committee really deals with more than just Realtor Safety.
It deals with wellness, health and wellness.
We’re really working at, in Boston this year, we’re going to have a raw group meeting, and that’s Realtor and Affiliate Wellness.
So, it’s basically a chance for Realtors to get together and talk about some of the things they’re going through.
So, we see there’s a mental health aspect to safety.
There’s, you know, the suicide prevention hotlines.
So, we really want to make some of those tools available to our Realtor members, that if they are struggling with some mental health issues, that they can have someone to reach out and talk to.
We know how tough this business can be.
We’ve gone through a lot.
We know, you know, how hard that Realtors work, how tough it is to have a schedule that we have.
A lot of times, we don’t really get to, you know, power down, even when we’re on vacation, we’re taking calls.
So, by having someone else that you can talk to that really understands what you’re going through, they can really help, you know, most people don’t see that as a, you know, safety, like I’m going to get hurt.
But just having the mental wellness, I think is really important.
There’s a mental wellness toolkit that they can access through nardotrealtor slash safety, and you can go in, there’s just a myriad of things that we’re working on.
There’s pieces in C2EX that address safety.
So if you’re C2EX certified, you’ve gone through those things.
So we’re constantly, we’re now going through a rewrite of the safety course.
We’re going through and updating all of the information.
Adding some things, so there’s AI.
Now we’re really having to deal with AI-generated material.
So the safety issues for that, of recognizing how that affects our business.
So really trying to stay up to date on all the things that are coming down, and it happens faster and faster.
Which is why there’s a committee, because you do have to stay on top of it.
Yes.
Right?
It’s a great committee to get involved with.
And I’m assuming there’s a lot of resources for brokers that might be thinking about some policies and what, maybe a checklist or something that they need to go through.
Yeah.
I would say it was the number one thing.
It’s, so goes the broker, so goes the office.
If the broker is really focused on safety and the policies, the office is going to pay attention.
And you really create an environment where a realtor member can come in, they can work with buyers, they can work with sellers, they can do it in a safe manner.
They’ll be more effective.
They’ll actually have a higher production level because they’re not wasting their time on people they haven’t met and haven’t vetted.
So they really can pay attention to the people that want to work with them, that are real buyers, that are real sellers.
You have, in order for a crime to take place, you have motive and you have opportunity.
So one of the things we have to really focus on, hard to change motive, really the opportunity is where we want to take away the opportunity.
Great.
Well, I’m going to say, as we wrap up, that I know you’ve done several webinars with the National Association of Realtors.
I think those are available on their website.
I’m going to suggest everybody tune into those.
If they have an opportunity to take one of your classes, I’m going to recommend they do that and look for any other opportunity that they can find when it has to do with safety.
I know you would recommend any class.
If anybody’s interested, they can talk to you.
But thank you so much for joining us.
Thanks for having me.
This has been fun.
It’s been fast.
Well, thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you all for joining us today on the Real Tea Podcast.
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