This past May a man named Oliver Hooper was convicted for raping a 19 year old NH woman in her home. He posed as a home buyer, apparently raped the woman and now he is appealing his sentence. Not a surprise I guess!
He became known as the FSBO Rapist or the Real Estate rapist. After that happened many of us used the story about the FSBO rapist in our marketing presentations. This was not the 1st time the New Hampshire real estate community was touched by rape.
Apparently this man’s mode of operation was to stake out For Sale By Owners, pose as a buyer and when the timing was right go knock on the door. His lawyers is arguing lack of DNA evidence as reason for the re-trail. Even though he made her take a shower afterwards. Go figure!
You can read about his appeal for a new trail here…New Hampshire Real Estate Rapist
Today I saw a pretty little house with a FSBO sign in front of it.
I watched as cars slowed down to look at the sign and it made me wonder who was home…was someone home alone and would they just let a stranger in?
Then of course I thought about all of us real estate agents who put ourselves in harms way everyday. We do everything mama told us not to do…
- We talk to strangers everyday
- We put them into our cars
- We meet them at empty or vacant homes
- We put our pretty pictures on our cards
- We take candy from strangers
If you are a home seller please think twice before putting up that For Sale By Owner sign…how will you handle showings? Who will be home to meet the potential buyers? It can really be scary out there.
As agents we put ourselves at risk everyday and in many cases we don’t give it a second thought.
Maybe we should all start thinking about it.
Stay safe.
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6 responses so far ↓
1 Monika McGillicuddy // Oct 13, 2007 at 9:40 pm
Geez!
2 Carole Cohen // Oct 13, 2007 at 9:51 pm
This is a powerful reason to use a realtor® no doubt about it
3 Maggie Dokic // Oct 14, 2007 at 3:24 am
Monika, reading this story gave me goosebumps. Real goosebumps! I hope he doesn’t get away with it.
4 Ashley Drake Gephart // Oct 14, 2007 at 4:27 am
Monika - It is a scary place out there. I know I take precautions that the average homeowner may not take or even be able to. I can make sure my buyers are pre-approved before going anywhere with them. It’s just one level of protection I take.
5 moni // Oct 14, 2007 at 9:46 am
Carole…At least REALTORS try and screen the prospects…to some degree anyway.
Maggie…Me too! I got goosebumps watching those cars all slow down…you simply never know who is going to be a creep.
Ashley…I think as professionals we are a bit more aware of the safety issues. Especially hearing about all the agents who have been attacked.
6 New Hampshire real estate rapist appeal denied // Oct 28, 2007 at 9:16 pm
[...] Read my original post about it here FSBO rapist [...]
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