ETHICS IN REAL ESTATE

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REAL ESTATE REFORMS must be based on ethics. The major principle of ethics comes from the Latin 'Primum non nocere' - 'First do no harm'. In fairness to agents it is impossible to act ethically with methods based on trickery and deception. Unfortunately, new laws are only part of the solution. Legal and ethical are different.

Legal is the lowest standard and ethical is the highest standard. Forcing agents to be ethical doesn't work. They must realise the importance of ethics. Ethics leads to the most vital ingredient in any relationship - trust. Of all the strategies to attract consumers, nothing is as powerful or as profitable as ethics. And nothing is harder, especially in the short-term. It takes courage to follow high ethical standards, to place the interests of consumers first. In the long-term, however, the rewards to consumers and agents are magnificent.

Ethics is a system of moral principles by which human actions are judged right or wrong, good or bad. The Roman statesman, Cicero, urged business people to revise their thinking and understand that true success does not come from trickery and deception but from moral goodness, both in thought and in action. Agents must stop thinking about who is right in the battle for real estate reform and start thinking about what is right. Ethics is the right way.