As a real estate agent, you can never know when a seemingly normal house showing could turn into a disaster as the "buyer" turns out to be a psychopathic criminal. Take for example the case of the Arkansas Man Guilty in the kidnapping and murder of real estate agent, Beverly Carter.
According to Trib Live News, a survey by the National Association of Realtors in 2015 stated that 4 out of every ten respondents were always concerned about their own safety or safety of personal information. The survey results also showed that one-third of the respondents carried a self-defense weapon.
Angie Flowers, of Scott, has admitted to have experienced "close calls" while working as a real estate agent for the South Hills office of Coldwell Banker Real Estate Services. Having those experience should be enough to convince anyone like Flowers to take self-defense classes. Flowers is one among the 20 Realtors who had enlisted last week in the three self-defense classes at Iron City Elite Strength & Conditioning in Castle Shannon.
The founder of the Pittsburgh Combat Club is 47-year-old David Holzer of Scott, who has been training in the martial arts for the past 31 years and has a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. He believes that fighting back is the only way to deal with an attack. Part of the things he teaches his students is to gouge eyes, break bones and cause physical injury. That is why he trains students to understand weaknesses of the human body. The training is not for the faint of heart but self-defense training can save lives. The club was formed in 2002 to teach self-defense workshops. A friend who is a former Realtor gave Holzer the idea to teach self-defense classes to real estate agents.
"He told me years ago, 'David, if you ever start doing this full-time you should check out Realtors and helping Realtors out.' I never thought about that," Holzer recalls.
Since last July, according to Trib Live News, Holzer then has been talking to real estate agents interviewing them about their personal experience, with some sharing about scary instances of people stalking them.
"If someone is really intent to hurt you, how do you stop them? You injure them," said Holzer. "We want to cause a structural deficiency in the human system. That's going for the eyes, taking out the throat, breaking an ankle."