by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
The Northeast Florida Association of Realtors’ St. Johns Council held a breakfast meeting last month at the Caddyshack Restaurant in World Golf Village.
The formation of the council was to help solve three main problems: the sharing of Multiple Listing Service data between the St. Augustine/St. Johns County Board of Realtors and NEFAR members, the caravan of the WGV and CR 210 areas, and reciprocal lockbox usage for both boards.
Two of those problems were addressed via announcements made during the meeting.
Ron Stephan, executive vice president and general manager of Northeast Florida Multiple Listing Service, said that the NEFMLS board has voted to approve its participation in MLS Advantage, which gives statewide visibility for all brokers and Realtors in the state of Florida to have access to their private listing data.
“Also, the board unanimously agreed that if you are a St. Augustine primary member and you have St. Augustine Supra lockbox keys and not NEFAR lockbox keys, your lockbox keys will open NEFAR lockboxes at no additional charge to you once we get Supra to do their thing,” said John Chapman, chair of the St. Johns Council. “That’s half the battle.”
Chapman said if St. Augustine Board of Realtors would also sign up with MLS Advantage and have Supra update their boxes to allow NEFAR members access, many of the problems would be solved and customers better served as a result.
“I want all of you St. Augustine/St. Johns County Board of Realtor members to talk to everyone you know and say that NEFAR is doing it for us and all that they are asking is that we reciprocate, “ said Chapman. “Then the NEFAR members can open St. Augustine boxes as well.”
Also, during the meeting, Andrew Wooten of S.A.F.E. gave the Realtors tips on how to keep safe.
Wooten said that crime has increased over 10 percent in the real estate industry in the last two years.
Visiting criminals to gather data is just one thing Wooten does to help educate others on how to avoid being a target.
“I partner with the Department of Justice and we go out and conduct eight to 10 prisoner visits each year,” said Wooten. “This means I have the chance to sit down with some of the men and women that commit some of the crimes we will talk about today. I ask them: ‘Why? Why did you pick this person or this location? What made this such an opportunity?”
He explained that as technology has advanced, so have criminals and their crimes.
Wooten said that identity theft is the number crime in the world right now.
“It has changed drastically,” he said. “Years ago we would talk about identity thieves coming into your work place looking to steal your checkbooks or credit cards and run out and use that for immediate use. That’s the way identity theft used to take place in a massive way. That still takes place, but that’s not what the criminals want anymore. They are not looking for that quick hit or quick fix. This is what the criminals want - they want your files.”
He said they want files with people’s full names, social security numbers and dates of birth.
“That’s what they want now,” he said. “An identity theft crime takes 13 to 17 months before it is detected. Now, they take those files and personal information and building a positive credit score with it. They go out and get an American Express card in your name and pay it off each month for 12 months and that beacon score will continue to rise. The number one purchase with an American Express with phony identification is a vehicle. The number place in Jacksonville is Tom Bush BMW. They then take the car right down Beach Boulevard and sell it for cash. In about a month and a half, you get a notice in the mail that you haven’t been making your car payments. Then you have to backtrack and figure out where it took place.”
He suggested having a security survey and security assessment done on your place of business.
“What kind of safeguard do you have to protect your files?” he asked. “Do you keep your keys in a separate location and who has access to them? Your files are worth millions.”
The number two place identity theft takes place is your mailbox. He said everyone should have a mailbox with a lock on it. He learned from talking with criminals that they get a lot of their information from mailboxes after you have gone to work.
Also, during tax time, home invasions go up because many tend to leave piles of personal information lying around the house as they prepare for tax season.
Other crimes that the real estate industry faces daily are rape and robbery.
“Last year in the real estate industry in Florida, there were 475 rapes reported,” said Wooten. “That is an increase of almost 200 percent since 2005. Robbery has almost tripled.”