Thoughts on My Ethics Policies for my New Office
I am starting a new real estate brokerage. I want to have clear and solid ethical policies in place. I have listed a start to this list below. Please let me know what you think!
-Agents will not push politics or religion on clients or other agents. Talking about these subjects is fine, but please respect that people may have different viewpoints than you.
-Agents will abide by all fair housing laws. It is not our job to tell clients where they should buy a house, what a good neighborhood is, what good schools are, where high crime is, the cultural makeup of neighborhoods or other subjective information. Every client is different and will have different viewpoints. It is better to lose a client than to sacrifice our own values. Be honest with clients and tell them what we can say and why.
-If you have issues with other agents or clients, we expect matters to be handled in a proffessional manner at all times. Yelling, cursing, bad mouthing, physical violence, intimidation, threats or other unacceptable behavior will not be tolerated.
-If a mistake is made, we expect agents to be proactive to fix things as soon as possible. This includes communicating with all affected parties ASAP. We all make mistakes, and they can be great learning experiences. However, hiding mistakes makes the situation worse and will not be accepted.
-We expect agents to go above and beyond to find solutions to problems. Our office is held to a high standard and we expect all agents to represent us with utmost proffessionlism.
-Experienced agents are expected to help and mentor inexperienced agents. The more success the entire office has, the more success we will all have.
-We highly discourage coming soon listings that are used for the listing agent to attempt to double side a deal before a house is properly marketed. This is a disservice to the client.
-We will always offer a co op commission on houses we list or advertise. If there are special circumstances where the seller cannot or will not pay a commission, it should be fully disclosed upfront. The listing agent collecting the entire commission and not paying co op agents is not acceptable.
-We do what is in the best interest of our clients and customers, not ourselves. We are more concerned with our long term reputation than short term financial gain.
-Agents will respect every agent in the office and other offices as well. We do not go after the clients or customers of other agents. If a client or customer comes to us we will take great care communicating with their agent and being transparent.
Consider:
Proper description of the property in the agent’s listings (don’t call a 2 bedroom house a 3 bedroom just because some room may somehow be converted)
Honesty and fiduciary duty involves proper disclosure, don’t try to hide issues, they can come back to bite you later (such as illegal or unpermitted additions or conversions)
If agents don’t know the answer to a question, admit it, and go look for the answer – don’t wing it
Good luck, it’s a tough business
Thank you! Good suggestions.
Maybe ad gossipping with bad mouthing
Maybe we are more concerned with a long-term business strategy, like developing our long-term reputation and this will ultimately benefit all of us more than short-term financial decisions.
was thinking about how can you add one line on how it is beneficial.
This words here are not consistent. Wouldn't telling a person a neighborhood is dangerous be consistent with most people's values? That information is objective with crime rate statistics. I might be over pedantic, but that was my thought.
I was also thinking you seperate it into categories with bolding to make the information more easy to read and understand the purpose.
Customer Service
Team Work
real estate agents have to be careful about calling a neighborhood "good or bad" - there are redlining laws and steering laws that make giving personal opinions of a neighborhoods a little tricky - I think it is best if he lets the clients decide for themselves if it is a neighborhood that they will be comfortable with ..
Exactly
Thank You! We legally cannot say things about neighborhoods. As what i feel is safe may not be the same as what others feel.
If they list investment properties - be sure that they include how much they are getting from each unit - nothing more frustrating than leaving that info out ...
Totally agree!
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