How To Become A Good Real Estate Agent Ethically Good, That Is

Written by Posted On Monday, 23 July 2018 11:45

Robert Solomon, one of the premier Business Ethics philosophers in the country, writes this:

Whether we do well, whether we like ourselves, whether we lead happy productive lives, depends to a large extent on the companies we choose. As the Greeks used to say, "to live the good life one must live in a great city." To my business students today, who are all too prone to choose a job on the basis of salary and start-up bonus alone, I always say, "to live a decent life, choose the right company."

Do you want to live a decent life, to like yourself as a real estate agent, to be as ethical in your business life as you would be in your personal life? Find a good company. (It should be obvious that we are using "good" here in the sense of ethically good.) How? Look for a company with good people, ethical people. If good people have been attracted to and stayed with a company, that is a good -- albeit not perfect -- indicator of its ethical climate.

Look for a company with values. Now just about every real estate company on the planet will tell you that they have and believe in values and high ethical standards, so you may need to dig a little deeper. Ask how they implement those values. Ask what they do to reinforce them. Ask them if they have a plan or a program to instill and support these values.

Hang around with good people. If there are agents in your company who have a reputation for being ethical and decent in the way they conduct their business, try to put yourself in their presence. If someone in your real estate association has that kind of reputation, seek them out. Most agents who have been around this business for a while have heard some trainer suggest to them that they should seek out top producers, take them to lunch, try to learn from them. The same principle applies. "You play better golf with better golfers."

Avoid the bad guys. You can be nice, you can be friendly; but don't make them your regular associates.

Work on developing good habits. If anyone knows that we can change or develop our habits, salespeople do. We can teach ourselves, or be taught, to make all sorts of behaviors (think about prospecting) part of our routines; we internalize scripts to prepare for every manner of objections and situations. Coaches make a living holding us accountable to the development of good business habits. We should bring the same kinds of disciplines and techniques to shape our ethical behavior.

How do we develop habits that will guide us through the maze of ethical decisions and situations we are liable to encounter in our business? By concentrating on what may appear to be "the little things." Tom Morris, the philosopher with a real estate broker license, writes:

Too many people in high places talk big about ethics, and morality, and virtue, and goodness, but do not practice these qualities when they interact day-to-day with the people who work for them. There are far too many people who want to increase the general weal of the world without doing the unglamorous and sometimes inconvenient work of, for example, responding in kindness to a coworker during a time of stress. The little kindnesses, the small decencies, form the foundation for truly magnificent things.

To this he adds:

If I could pass on only one thing I've discovered in the realm of wisdom and virtue, this would be it...

Whenever you make a decision, whenever you act, you are never just doing, you are always becoming.

...In everything we do, however large or small, we should always be asking, ourselves: "In doing this, am I becoming the kind of person I want to be?" One of the greatest dangers in life is the ever-present threat of self-deception. We often believe we can do something, "just this one time," without its having any implications for who we are. But there are no exceptions to this process. We can never take a holiday from moral significance.

Develop the habit of taking others into account, of putting yourself in their shoes. Think about how your actions will affect others; again, put yourself in their shoes. Do this in the so-called little things, and you'll find your instincts are right when it comes to the big things. Columnist Dave Barry once wrote, "A person who is nice to you, but rude to a waiter, is not a nice person." Tom Morris would agree wholeheartedly. If a real estate office becomes a place where "little acts of kindness" are practiced routinely, where friendliness and cheerfulness are the norm -- and where rudeness and mean-spiritedness are out of place -- then the moral dimension of its agents will be nurtured, and they can be expected to do what is right in the "big" situations.

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Bob Hunt

Bob Hunt is a former director of the National Association of Realtors and is author of Ethics at Work and Real Estate the Ethical Way. A graduate of Princeton with a master's degree from UCLA in philosophy, Hunt has served as a U.S. Marine, Realtor association president in South Orange County, and director of the California Association of Realtors, and is an award-winning Realtor. Contact Bob at [email protected].

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