
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.
Mark Eibner
August 29, 2008 at 5:17 pm
we’re at it again “What’s Your License Worth?”: Getting out of the fe.. https://tinyurl.com/64d6kt
Vance Shutes
August 29, 2008 at 3:21 pm
Rich,
There was a book years ago with a title akin to “Everything I really need to know I learned in kindergarten.” One of the tenets of that book is “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” A simple tenet, easily followed.
It seems that some in our industry have forgotten the lessons they learned in kindergarten.
When one Realtor says (writes) something derogatory about another Realtor in the public forum, it only serves to further diminish the public perception of our industry. If we have a problem with one of our peers, the best solution is a private conversation with the other Realtor. A simple tenet, easily follow.
Steve Simon
August 31, 2008 at 9:21 am
You can disagree, you can debate the merits, you can even strongly critisize a practice; but why would you want to make a personal attack like that?
I do hope that a high standard was set as far as proving that this poster was over the line.
if he was just nasty and mean, nothing should have happened administratively.
He may be a creepy sort, but unless he specifically fabricated events or completely misquoted an individual, and it caused harm to that person, I think he should have received less of a penalty.
A lot of people get carried away with talking, and posting; they say some things that are very negative, that is poor behavior, but i would not classify it as criminal.
I have had the privledge of knowing a lot of judges over the years… I would imagine that in this case the poster was particularly horrid!
Vicki Moore
September 1, 2008 at 1:46 am
We all have to have personal responsibility – even if it has to come from a judge.