
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.
Ken Brand
May 18, 2009 at 8:00 pm
I’m in agreement.
Should be some rules about sucker punching with a smear haymaker. If you wouldn’t print your false and misleading statements in a newspaper or a magazine, you shouldn’t on the web either.
Let’s face it, the web/blogging/etc., well, it’s been a sorta free range, Deadwood style from time to time.
I don’t see how NAR could impose these article on 3rd parties.
I imagine that over time, most every article will have to edited to include forms of electoric/web media.
Interesting times.
Yep, I think deleting is the way to go.
Benn Rosales
May 18, 2009 at 8:06 pm
I just got an offline clarification that the amendment covers all media used by Realtors to include any form of electronic media, so it would include Twitter and facebook and other forums as well.
Benn Rosales
May 18, 2009 at 8:07 pm
“I don’t see how NAR could impose these article on 3rd parties.”
and that’s the most unfortunate part- we’re held to a different standard than 3rd party sites that publish our content.
Spero Speropoulos
May 19, 2009 at 3:04 pm
Yes Realtor’s should be held to a higher standard.
No we can’t hold third parties to our standards.
We should by no means, social or other, smear the name of anyone, especially one of our own. We have a fantastic system for complaints.
Let the media and the others say what they want. Stone throwing only makes the pitcher look bad anyway.
The public is not stupid. In the long run we will be judged fairly.
Jack Lindberg
May 28, 2009 at 12:17 pm
wow… a small step. We are worried about 3rd parties? And yet I see brokers hand over their data to just about anyone for display…without that party being held to the same standards – esp. licensing! When Google came to me about their ‘widget’, the first thing i warned my broker clients about is that once they hand that data over, they lose control and if Google did something that was against licensing laws, the broker is still responsible. We still have major problems with technology in the industry and not enough people that know what they are doing…
Joe Loomer
May 28, 2009 at 3:38 pm
@Jack – check out the MIBOR/NAR vs Paula Henry stuff about indexing vs. scraping – right up your alley.
I’m a firm believer in not worrying about the future and just live by the lessons I’ve learned from my parents and the World’s Finest Navy. I figure it’s kept me out of trouble this long.
I do think that first time the 3rd party issue pops up is going to fun to watch – or not – depending on how it plays out.
Navy Chief, Navy Pride