The recent murder of Arkansas real estate agent Beverly Carter while showing a vacant, bank-owned property highlights the dangers of exhibiting houses to strangers -- not just to realty pros, but to homeowners themselves.

As crime victims go, agents don't hold a candle to taxi drivers, who suffer the highest rate of homicides of any particular occupation, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. But every so often, the headlines scream out about a real estate agent who is murdered, raped, robbed or beaten while showing a house for sale.

Some years back, Seattle agent Michael Emert was slain. And now Carter, an agent with Crye-Leike Realtors in Little Rock, is gone.

Many realty firms and their trade groups have made safety a top concern, but rarely do agents pass along safety tips to their clients. As a result, sellers often go forth totally oblivious to the dangers that lurk.

That's not to say you shouldn't hold an open house or allow someone to view your for-sale property. But to be safe -- and to keep from becoming a victim -- you should be aware of the risks.

Usually, miscreants are after whatever they can jam into their pockets as they roam from room to room. But sometimes they are there to case your place for a future burglary. And occasionally, they have worse things in mind.

Here are some precautions sellers should take to protect themselves and their property:

-- First and foremost, trust your instincts. Your intuition is your most powerful crime-fighting weapon. If something or someone makes you uncomfortable, be extra alert and extremely careful.

-- If a prospective buyer or unknown agent shows up at your door unannounced, have them call your agent to schedule an appointment. Don't open your door to strangers. No exceptions!

Call your agent. That's why you have one. One of the first things your agent should tell you is, "Always let me show your house for you."

-- If you fail to heed that warning, at the very least, you should never, ever let a stranger into your home when you are alone. There is safety in numbers.

Agents are advised not to show houses alone, and neither should you. If someone is insistent, ask a neighbor to come over while you show the visitor around. If no one is available to keep you company, tell the visitor to come back later or call your agent. It's better to lose a sale than your life.

-- Identify your visitors. Agents often insist that everyone sign a guest registry to show their professionalism. They also screen their clients by putting them through a prequalification process before they ever put them in their cars. At the very least, you should keep a visitor's log.

Since anyone can sign in under whatever name he wants, ask for a driver's license or other photo ID and make sure the picture matches the face of the person in front of you. Next, get their addresses, phone numbers and license plate and driver's license numbers. And while you are writing them down, also jot down a brief description of the visitor and her automobile.

Before you let anyone inside, call someone and pass along the security data you have collected. Be certain you do this within earshot of your visitor. That way, he'll know you are taking cautions to protect yourself, and maybe he'll move on.

This might seem like a cumbersome task, but security experts say you can never be too prudent. And anyone who finds this request unreasonable in this day and age is probably not someone you want to invite into your home anyway.

-- Identify unknown agents, too. It's too easy for someone to print up fake business cards, so call the agent's office to make sure the agent is who he says he is. Never let an agent directly into your house. Instead, make them open the lockbox your agent placed on your door to gain access. Non-agents won't be able to.

-- Don't make an appointment with potential buyers unless they give you their names and phone numbers and you have called them back to verify the number.

-- Beware of callers who knock on your door at strange hours, either late at night or early in the morning. Again, no matter who they say they are, ask them to make an appointment at a more reasonable time. If someone says he can only view your house at this particular moment, don't believe him.

-- Prior to letting anyone in, turn on all the lights and open all the blinds, shades and curtains. Dark rooms invite trouble, and homes are safer for showing when someone outside can see inside.

-- In advance of an open house, remove your valuables, including jewelry, artwork and electronic equipment. You're going to be packing them when you move anyway, so you might as well put them away for safekeeping now. Also, guns and other weapons should be locked up and separated from the keys and ammunition. Lock up your prescription drugs, too.

Never leave money, mail, bank statements, credit cards or your keys lying around. Keep them on your person, not in a drawer. It's too simple for a petty thief to open a drawer when no one is looking.

-- Pay attention to the way prospects view your house. Professional burglars often linger in rooms, looking for items they can dispose of quickly. They also search for ways to get in and out quickly, scouting possible escape routes and checking for security devices. Couples up to no good often split up so one can case the joint while the other keeps you occupied.

-- Be mindful of someone who is asking unusual questions that have nothing to do with the house, such as: Are you married or single? Do you live alone? What times does your spouse leave for work and return? What time do the kids come home from school? Have you had much interest in your house? When do you plan to show it again?

All these queries could be an attempt to determine how long you'll be alone, or when the house will be empty. Never let potential buyers know your schedule.

-- Some agents prefer to tour houses with their clients, while others allow them to wander from room to room on their own. If prospective buyers ask you to show them around, let your visitors enter each room first so you can't be attacked from behind. Don't turn your back on them or lead them around. In other words, direct them as opposed to letting them follow you.

Don't allow yourself to be trapped in a corner or behind a desk or other piece of furniture. And never go into a walk-in closet, laundry room, basement or storage area with someone you don't know. There's no escaping those spots.

-- If someone attempts to draw you into a lengthy conversation, steer him toward the front door. And plan your own escape route in case something goes wrong. Figure out in advance how you are going to get out of trouble if trouble presents itself.

Overly cautious? Probably so. But it's better to be safe than sorry.

Two major banks have now agreed to originate a new 15-year mortgage under pilot programs aimed at low- and moderate-income borrowers.

In addition, the creators of the so-called Wealth Building Home Loan (WBHL), which allows homebuyers to build equity at a much faster clip than they would with a standard 30-year loan, are planning to bring their ideas to 10 other institutions over the next few weeks.

Still, Edward Pinto thinks it might take months or even years for the product to become universal, if it becomes a regular offering at all. But Pinto and his co-conspirator, Bruce Marks, generated major buzz when they introduced the WBHL at a mortgage conference in North Carolina in early September.

As it usually does, the trade press jumped on the announcement, saying the loan was the proverbial best thing since sliced bread.

But the loan also won the endorsement of several high-profile industry executives, including Lewis Ranieri, who is generally considered to be the father of the mortgage-backed security, and Joseph Smith, the former North Carolina bank regulator who was appointed to oversee the National Mortgage Settlement that created new mortgage servicing standards and provided some relief for distressed owners.

So what is everybody so excited about?

The Wealth Building Home Loan is a 15-year mortgage with a fixed interest rate that can be bought down to zero. In addition, little or no down payment is required, there are no additional fees and underwriters will pay far more attention to your residual income than to your credit score.

Typically, the monthly payment on a 15-year loan is more expensive than that on a 30-year loan. But the loan amortizes much more quickly, meaning you build wealth -- or equity -- faster.

To make the payments more affordable, the offering rate will be about three-quarters of a percentage point below the 30-year FHA rate. And the rate can be bought down even further. For every 1 percent of the loan amount the borrower puts up as a down payment, the interest rate will be lowered by half a percentage point, which is twice as much as usual.

Consequently, a $6,000 downpayment on a $100,000 mortgage at 3 percent would bring the rate down to zero, meaning that every penny spent on the monthly payment would go to principal.

But here's the key: Underwriters will want to make sure you have enough money left over after you make your house payment to cover all your other monthly expenses. That way, should you have a financial setback, there will be enough money coming in that you can still make your payments and won't fall into foreclosure.

Pinto and Marks are strange bedfellows. Pinto is a conservative gadfly who is a thorn in the side of the conventional mortgage market, while Marks is a liberal consumer advocate who thinks nothing of gathering his followers to picket the homes of banking executives to persuade them to do more for low-income borrowers.

But while on an industry panel together in May, Pinto, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and Marks, who heads the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, had a "meeting of the minds." They decided to work together to create a vehicle that would help low- and moderate-income borrowers build wealth rather than just accumulate debt.

In a sense, the result is a throwback to the long-forgotten early years of the Federal Housing Administration. For its first 20 years or so, the FHA insured mostly shorter-term, 15- to 25-year mortgages and required 20 percent down payments, a full review of a borrower's household budget and rigorous appraisal standards.

But beginning in the late 1950s, U.S. housing policy shifted, and lenders started to rely on ever-looser underwriting standards. The result: Low- and moderate-income borrowers are pushed into overwhelmingly high-risk loans. If something should go wrong in the borrower's life -- job loss, major illness, divorce -- there is little equity for him or her to fall back on.

In the first three years of the WBHL, according to Pinto, 77 percent of the monthly payments go to paying off the loan's principal, whereas 68 percent of the payments of a standard 30-year mortgage pays interest to the lender.

And after 15 years, you own the home free and clear. And starting in year 16, there is no longer a house payment at all, so you have extra cash flow for life-cycle needs such as your children's education. With a 30-year loan, on the other hand, you could be making payments well into retirement.

"This is an opportunity to spend a little more each month but build wealth much more rapidly," Pinto said. "But even better, there is only a small probability of going into foreclosure. If house prices should go down, you're covered because you have some equity to fall back on."

Initially, the Wealth Building Home Loan will be made available through NACA's 37 offices. NACA acts as mortgage originator for Bank of America under a $10 billion contract. NACA is also talking to other lenders about starting pilot programs for their own employees and to meet their community reinvestment requirements.

Bottom line: The WBHL could be a good option for some, but there's still nothing wrong with a longer-term mortgage. In any case, homeownership can be a wonderful way to build equity. According to the latest Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances, an owner's net worth is 36 times greater than that of a renter. The survey found that the average owner's net worth is $194,500, whereas a renter's is $5,400.

How many homes should buyers look at before making a decision?

That's a question every real estate agent worth his or her salt has heard, most more than a few times. And there is no right answer. Some folks fall in love with the first place they see, while others look for years and never find their dream home.

Generally, the ones who make what seem like "lightning decisions" have already done their homework online before venturing forth to take first-hand tours of their favorite offerings. Those who must see lots of homes usually don't know exactly what they want, or fear that if they stop looking, the next house would have been even better than the last.

According to the latest National Association of Realtors' Profile of Home Buyers, the typical home search takes 12 weeks -- almost a full quarter-year from beginning to end. Buyers usually spend two weeks looking at houses for sale on the Web before contacting an agent, and then after doing so, they look at a median of 10 houses before making their choices.

A whopping 43 percent found the house they ultimately purchased on the Internet. Real estate agents are now the second most common source for finding houses, according to the profile.

Still, when you get down to it, the most difficult part of the homebuying process, for most people, is finding just the right house. And the question of how many houses to visit came up the other day on ActiveRain, an online real estate community.

As usual, the responses were all over the ballpark. But a post from Ann Wilkins of East Bay Sotheby's International Realty in Oakland, California, summed it up.

"Most buyers have done extensive online research and open house research before even contacting an agent," Wilkins wrote. "I have had clients buy a house the first time we have gone out looking. Doesn't happen often, (but) they know what they want and have been watching the inventory (online) and stepped up to the plate the first time out."

At the same time, the agent said she has been working with a few clients for a year who have yet to the pull the trigger and are "still looking."

"It really depends on the client and how specific they are in their requirements," she said.

Claude Labbe of Real Living in Washington, D.C., agreed. "Isn't it like dating? You look until you find the one you know is 'the one.' Some people walk down the aisle at 19, some at 23 and some at 31."

Several agents who joined the discussion said some buyers, typically first-timers, have been led astray by those reality shows in which people look at one house, then another and finally a third. After just three, they are ready to make an offer. Should it always be that easy?

"Only on TV," commented Mark Robinson of America's First Funding Group in Beachwood, New Jersey.

Then again, sometimes it really does work that way.

"I have had buyers who bought the first house we looked at, and I had one buyer who looked at more than 50 before he made the decision to buy," said Maria Morton of BHG Real Estate in Kansas City, Missouri. "He actually would have bought the second house we looked at, but waited two months to tell me that was the one. By that time, the house was sold."

Ritu Desai of Samson Properties in Ashburn, Virginia, said that clients of hers recently asked how many houses they should look at. "They loved one of the homes they previewed, but wanted to confirm they are ready to make a decision or (know if) they should see more homes," Desai said.

But, as Norma Toering of Charlemagne International Properties in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, pointed out, "There's no magical number. They have to shop until they find the 'right one.'"

One of Eve Alexander's clients certainly knew. They were scheduled to view eight houses, but after the third, they were finished. They had found that elusive "one."

"I tried to encourage them to look at the rest, but nope, they were done," said the agent, who works with Buyers Broker in Windermere, Florida. "Bought house No. 3."

Agents tend to agree, though, that with all the information that's available on the Internet, it doesn't -- or at least it shouldn't -- take as long to find the right house as it used to.

Rod Pierson of Coldwell Banker C&C Properties in Redding, California recommends looking at many houses on the Web, then narrowing your choices to a handful, then doing a few "drive-bys" to narrow your list even further. At that point, it's time to start touring.

"I used to spend weekends showing many properties to one client," he said. "By the time we were done, they didn't remember the first property."

Said El Silva of RE/MAX Professionals in Waterbury, Connecticut: "With the amount of information online ... it doesn't take long for many buyers to feel 'at home' once they get inside."

Once you've reached this point, your instincts should take over. In other words, trust your gut. And once you've found "the place," act quickly, agents advise.

"You need to buy it, as it may not be available the next day or next week," warns Ric Mills of Keller Williams Southern in Tucson, Arizona. "I have had many hesitate, thinking there might be a better (house) and lose their first choice.

"If it is the right home -- even if it's the first home you see -- don't wait, or you could miss out."