Realtor Safety — A Conversation with Jen Stanbro

This one is important. We want you to listen to the whole thing.

Jen Stanbro is a broker and team leader out of Des Moines, Iowa who has been in real estate since 2006. She serves on the National Association of Realtors Safety Committee and on the board of the Beverly Carter Foundation. She came to this work the hard way — through the loss of a dear friend and fellow Realtor, Ashley Oakland, who was shot and killed while holding an open house in broad daylight on a Friday afternoon in 2010. Ashley's case remains unsolved.

If you listened to Episodes 6 and 7 when we had Carl Carter on the show — Beverly Carter's son — you know how deeply this issue hits our industry. Jen's episode is the companion to that one, and we'd encourage you to go back and listen if you haven't.

Jen is not here to scare you. She's here to prepare you. And she's spent over a decade turning her grief into a mission: making sure every Realtor comes home safe every single day.

Here's what we cover in this episode:

- Ashley Oakland's story — who she was, what happened, and why the case is still unsolved 13 years later
- How the industry responded (and didn't) after Ashley's death — and what it revealed about our collective false sense of security
- The NAR Realtor Safety Pledge and listing safety form — and exactly how Jen uses them with every single seller
- Why Jen doesn't do open houses and how she communicates that to sellers at the listing appointment without losing the listing
- Open house safety tips for agents who still hold them: positioning, exit awareness, parking, the "phone call excuse," and never walking behind a stranger
- The ForWarn tool and how Jen uses it to vet every client — even referrals
- How she handles buyer consultations with safety built in from the very first conversation
- Vetting sellers before going to their home — and how to bring a partner without making it weird
- Using Google Calendar and Google Contacts as free, practical safety and business tools
- Why scarcity mindset is the enemy of safe practice — and how to hold each other accountable
- How Jen connected with Carl Carter and joined the Beverly Carter Foundation
- The three things she wants every Realtor to do right now to get started with safety

Resources mentioned in this episode:

- NAR Realtor Safety Toolkit: nar.realtor/safety
- Beverly Carter Foundation: beverlycarterfoundation.org
- ForWarn (background check tool — available through many local associations)
- Episodes 6 & 7: Carl Carter on Realtor Safety

Toast of the week goes to Carl Carter of the Beverly Carter Foundation — and to Jen's team members Amy, Julie, and Taylor, who hold each other accountable every single day. Cheers to all of them.

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