
An animated discussion on ethics training
“Does anyone else find it ironic that NAR – the trade association for Realtors – has to mandate that members take an ethics class every four years?” An agent who attended one of my company’s broker opens yesterday posed that question to the wine and cheese grazing attendees. Of course, that opened up an animated discussion on the value of etchics training and the lack of enforcement when the rules are violated.
One agent volunteered that the guy sitting next to her in her last ethics class played games on his cell phone and then cheated during the test at the end of the class. Seriously, dude? You cannot even pay attention long enough to pass what should be the easiest test you’ll ever have to take in your career? Perhaps he was just seeing how far he could push it by cheating during an ethics test, to see if anyone else around him caught the extreme irony there. None of the other agents around him – including the agent he cheated off – turned him in and the instructor didn’t notice.
This same agent later called one of my sellers and tried to convince him to break a listing contract with me, because he had a “guaranteed buyer” in the wings. The seller was an attorney, and this bozo tried to get me cut out of the deal, offering the seller a reduced fee to dump me. The seller held firm and directed the agent to call me, then the seller called to let me know about the conversation.
“But you know if you file something the other agent will know.”
It gets better. After the deal closed, I requested paperwork from our local Board of Realtors to file an ethics complaint. The person in charge said, “But you know if you file something the other agent will know.” Gee. Really? I asked her to send the paperwork over anyway.
I called the seller/attorney and asked him to repeat the conversation to me, because I was documenting it to file a complaint. He turned wishy washy on me at that point and his story changed from “The other agent tried to get me to dump you as the listing agent to cut you out” to “Well he really only asked a few questions and I told him to call you. He probably didn’t mean any harm by it.” So there goes my star witness, who doesn’t want to rock the boat.
I didn’t file the complaint. I resorted to the “turn the blind eye but never trust the sleazeball again” path. And that is what happens to almost all ethics issues I hear about / see in person.
That’s what happens when you have a self-policing group of “professionals” who would rather not “narc” on a fellow agent. After all you’re probably going to end up on the other side of a deal from this guy some day, right? The guy in my example has sold two of my houses since that run-in. Why tick him off by filing a complaint and going through all that hassle? If he stops bringing buyers to my properties then my sellers ultimately lose, right?
Boiling down the CoE
The NAR Code of Ethics takes up pages and pages of tiny print, and it runs each year in their trade magazine (I think it’s the January issue). Does anybody read that? Probably not many. I’d argue none of us ever should have to read it again. Simply follow this advice instead. The thousands of words in the Code boil down to one thing: Do unto other agents, and consumers, and clients, what you would have them do unto you. It’s the Golden Rule. Simple. Well, obviously not, for many agents and brokers.
The sad part is the agent in my example had no clue how close I was to filing that compaint, and if he did know he’d probably scratch his head and wonder why his actions were “wrong.” Making us take a one-day class every few years won’t “make” the unethical agents suddenly operate ethically. Most of them just don’t get it.
Jim Reppond
October 1, 2008 at 8:45 am
There are times when sharing personal information with the other party is important or helpful, particularly during negotiations. But it’s a Realtor’s duty to be absolutely clear with their client about what and how they are going to use this information, and make sure the client is on board and agree with the strategy.
A good example might be to sharing the Buyer’s approximate credit scores with the listing agent to have them feel comfortable and confidant in the Buyer’s ability to secure a loan, especially these days.
I like to think of a virtual mini-version of my client sitting on my shoulder watching and listening to me. If I get the feeling the mini-client might be uncomfortable with my behavior or what I am going to say, it’s time to stop and check in with my real client.
Jason Sandquist
October 1, 2008 at 8:46 am
Get this, this is funny, not really but I was working on a transaction and the other agent works in the company. The other agent is the Zipforms admin for the company and I wasn’t by a computer at the time when we were going back and forth. The agent brought up the idea of going into MY ZIPFORM ACCOUNT and drafting up an addendum for my client. Couldn’t believe it. Had to throw the hammer down on that one.
Steve Simon
October 1, 2008 at 9:01 am
Every two years I attend the Florida Real Estate License Law Instructor’s CE Seminar.
This topic is discussed in one way, shape or form or another each time. The amount of complaints relative to this subkect is very large.
It isn’t that complex a problem.
It’s having the initial understanding of:
What must I say,
What may I say,
What I must not say.
Then remembering it during the course of discussion.
If you remember to put your client first, you should be fine.
By the way, one civil action for breach of confindentiality (violation of fiduciary responsibilities), can, In Florida and elsewhere, result in the aforementioned civil action, as well as administrative action and or criminal penalty; it all depends upon what you said that you should not have, or what you didn’t say and you sould have:)
Kim Wood
October 1, 2008 at 12:41 pm
… and this applies forever and ever and ever… not just the life of the transaction !
Matt Stigliano
October 1, 2008 at 2:42 pm
On my first ever transaction, the seller’s agent gave me some important info without even thinking about it. Of course, when I went back to my client and explained the potential meaning of this information, we made an offer that was almost 50% below asking price. And it was accepted. And we thought it would be, because of the info the agent gave us. We were prepared to work back and forth if necessary, but because we knew more about the seller than he probably wished we knew, we were able to second guess him and feel confident in what we were doing. Amazing what a slip of the tongue (and in this case, it was a very slight slip) can do. Best thing I was ever taught by a CPA was to always answer the question, but never answer anything with your answer that wasn’t asked. Of course, with confidentiality, you can apply this MUCH more strictly, as you shouldn’t answer any question that would reveal info you shouldn’t be giving out.
Missy Caulk
October 1, 2008 at 6:11 pm
When I first meet with people before any client relationship is started, I go over the different ways people can be represented in MI. I tell them then I want them to know upfront about confidential information. I see it violated all the time, with comments like, “bring and offer, my clients HAVE to sell”, “they are closing on their home next week”, or something else that says, they are desperate.
Paula Henry
October 1, 2008 at 10:48 pm
Jim – A virtual mini client sitting on your shoulder will definately work 🙂
Jason- Sure, I’ll share my clients files with you – I can see it already, but would not be surprised to hear it happens.
Steve – Thanks for your teacher insight. Putting your client first is an excellent test of what is proper.
Kim – Yep!
Matt – How sad for that seller, but wonderful for your buyer. I wonder how many times this same scenario occurs.
Missy – When I hear comments like that I shudder. I had someone call me today about one of my listings – he asked what was going on with the home, are the owners elderly, do they want to move. I simply said, of course they want to move, their house is for sale.
Lori
November 23, 2008 at 8:29 pm
If anyone can help me out with the answer to this one, I’d appreciate it. I’ve been working with an agent since June. Over the past few weeks, I withdraw an offer on a house and was trying to get my deposit back. Unfortunately, my agent didn’t have me sign a form to get me out within 7 days of the inspection, but ultimately, I did get my deposit back, because the sellers goofed too. That’s not the issue. The issue is that last week, I received an email to my work email and in the subject it said, “Blank Blank Agent”, (I’ll keep the name of the agency private). I thought it was my agent’s boss, so I opened it. The email was from a former client of my agent. This woman stated that she was very friendly with a lot of the agents in the office and heard the trouble that my agent caused me. She said she begged one of her friends who works at this agency to give her my contact information because she wanted to tell me exactly what she thought of my agent and how my agent handled her daughter’s real estate search. I KNOW it’s not legal (i think) for someone in that real estate agency to just give my contact information out to a friend. But I want to know what recourse I have here. If I decided to file a claim against the agency, can I do that? And how?