There are a few words in our real estate vocabulary that need some attention. When we act as an agent of buyer, seller, landlord or tenant, rarely have nor do we want the authority to bind the client to an obligation. Yet, agents will use words like "yes" and "no" with a passion.

In terms of agency relationships, a "yes" or "no" could modify or even create an agency relationship. When representing a seller and a buyer asks you something about the seller and you respond with a yes or no, you may have established an agency relationship you have no interest in. Never forget - in real estate you are not what you think you are, rather you are what you are perceived to be.

Those two little words, yes and no, simply don’t belong in our daily work. The potential liability for using these words can be significant. Yes and no at the wrong time may even contribute to a misrepresentation. Rarely does your client or customer call you out of impulse. Rather, they call you after thinking out exactly what they want to say. An agent on the other hand is probably on their mobile doing 40 in a 35 -mile per hour zone answering that caller's questions using "yes" and "no" like they owned them. Now the client or customer acts on the agent’s yes or no and ends up in some sort of dilemma. If there is a monetary loss, they go after the agent. Now the untimely use of a "yes" or "no" can be expensive. When is the last time your attorney gave you a "yes" or "no" to a question? I learned from the lawyers that we are taking risks we could avoid.

So what do we do? With just a little practice, we could probably replace the yes and no in almost every instance with “Probably.” For example: The client has just asked some question. We could probably say: you are probably right, but let’s make a note of that and ask _______ for a detailed answer.

Another word that is worthy of an attack is “Help”. For some reason we seemed compelled to "help" people. I assure you it is not written anywhere that you "help" a buyer or seller. I am not saying an agent should be rude or unprofessional, but I am saying that there is a huge difference between helping someone and doing your job. Help is a four-letter word with consequences. If we would replace that in our mindset with "hire" then we could define our duties and limit their expectations of us.

This work ethic could go a long way in our commitment to risk management.

Published: September 10, 2001

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