Ethics in real estate

by Shawn Lackie

I know the title sounds like a bit of a joke, to many, but there ARE realtors out there who care, and they carry themselves and their business with honesty and integrity; really. However, too often we hear about the “bad apples,” and there are more than a few of those.

Recently, a brokerage was in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Their trust account was audited and there was a $10 million dollar shortfall. The case is still under investigation but may have also cost one of the higher ups his job, at RECO, the governing body.

All of this got me to thinking about a story which floated around a few years ago. I was told, numerous times, it was the truth, despite how insanely idiotic it was. An agent had a client looking to rent a place. Yes, that’s what makes this all the crazier. It wasn’t even a buy or sale. At any rate, they found her ideal place and put in an offer to lease. As part of the listing, it was required she give a letter of employment, three references plus the other standard stuff. She was unemployed, so the agent thought it would be a brilliant idea to write a bogus letter of employment, himself. So that’s what he did. Furthermore, to really make things kooky, he came up with a fake company title but listed HIMSELF as the person in charge. For reference, he gave his personal cell phone number as the person to contact, in case anything went sideways.

At this point, you can tell what was going to happen. She was the successful applicant for the home and moved in right away. A month went by and she didn’t pay rent, then two months with no rent. Finally, after the third month with no rent payment, the landlord had had enough, so guess what he did? Yep, he called the number, and lo and behold there was the Realtor on the other end. Needless to say, the landlord found this quite confusing, but once he sorted out the scam he reported the Realtor and the guilty non-paying renter. This went up the ladder, until it was reported to and investigated by RECO.

The net result was the Realtor was fined a very healthy sum (the fines are usually in the 10K-25K range for egregious actions) and was also required to complete an ethics course, to remind him of his fiduciary duties.

All of this could easily have been avoided, if he had just played by the rules. No employment, no gig. What made this even crazier is, he stood to possibly make $1,500 for all this grief, just one half a month’s rent.

So, you tell me, was it worth it? Damaging reputation and risking all you have over some silly stuff like this shouldn’t even be a point of discussion. We always need to hold ourselves to a higher standard, and if you never lie you never have to remember what you said. Pretty basic principles, I would say.

Feel free to check out this story and more on my blog site, at https://slackie14.wixsite.com/buy-sell-and-more.