We live and work in a world that is pretty efficient. We are building things and making things with rules for service and manufacturing.
We have service standards, business rules and measures for everything we do from restaurant cleanliness to the conduct of teachers in our schools to the codes of how buildings have to be built. Standards are good things. Standards are real good things.
They are not always absolutely reassuring though. For example, it helps me a little to know that lawyers have some business standards but I am still mistrustful of them because honesty is not exactly something they promote as their main thing.
It seems that every group has standards. Every professional organization from lawyers to teachers to restaurant owners has standards. Even candlestick makers have a code of ethics. The problem is that although it’s good they have that, some people in these organizations still cheat or act unethically, so we still remain suspicious of their conduct.
There is no organization or professional group that I know of that is known first for its integrity. Every profession or work situation conjures an image in our minds. When we think of a librarian, we see people putting books on shelves. When we think of bankers or bank tellers we think of people counting money. But there is no work position or profession that makes anybody think of integrity or high ethical behaviour first. Not one.
It occurs to me that this one thing is a professional image that Realtors should develop solely as their own. Integrity! No other group has ever chosen to present their professional ethics first and foremost as its “main function”.
Not withstanding the central role of Realtors, there are other roles when property is bought and sold. Banks provide money. Home inspectors check structures. Stagers make a house look as presentable as possible. Appraisers gather data for an opinion. Lawyers file documents. Title insurers provide clear property ownership. There are movers, landscapers, architects, roofers, engineers, historical researchers and many others. There are more professions than you can think of that can be involved in the entire process.
All of these workers and professionals have standards. If you ask them they’ll show you the paper with their “code of ethics” written on them. The vast majority is probably of good character but none of them promote good character.
Is there one professional person or group that you can single out and absolutely count on to be the most honest in the whole process of buying or selling a home, the most important purchase anyone makes?
In my humble estimation, the answer that should come first to mind is, a Realtor. I am sure you wish that was the case as well. Don’t you wish that Realtors in the past promoted that image before you came to the industry?
As you think about the years ahead and consider how the strategy of marketing the real estate profession should roll out, I urge you; think first and foremost about integrity. Please make this profession the most ethical of all others. If anyone cheats, even a little, get rid of them. Make your standards so high that only the most ethical of character can get in. Not the most education, not even the most in experience, but the most ethical of character!
I urge you to first raise the standard of ethics in this business to even greater heights. Make them greater than any other profession on the planet. Then market these standards. Market them and make sure you back them up.
That is what people want. It is not location, location, location. They can figure that out on their own. What they want is integrity, integrity, integrity!
Don’t compete with the do it yourselfers and the amateurs. Set a higher standard and customers will come. It will take years to achieve. For the sake of Realtors in the future I urge you, start the process now.
Heino Molls is the publisher of REM. Email [email protected].
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