I got a call from a friend of mine today who does rentals in another part of the country in a "nice" town. While inspecting potential deals he walked in on a dead rape victim.

Folks, when you're inspecting property - especially vacant property - you need to take care of yourself. Never forget that no matter how nice a town you are in, you are operating "behind closed doors". No matter how pretty, wealthy, or "nice" they are - people behave one way in public and hide their secrets "behind closed doors". When you go there, you leave the safety of the public eye and familliar territory. You are in someone else's territory and need to have a heightened level of awareness. I am a 6'3, 260 lb martial arts practitioner and I never go into vacant property alone and I always have a 3' maglight and a "tactical" grade folding knife with me at minimum. I have never needed either yet and would frankly prefer to run like hell than ever get into a fight in someone else's territory (and not just for legal concerns) but the reality of the world is that there are bad people out there who are not governed by reason and must therefore be governed by other means.