Ethics in Real Estate – Yes, They Exist!

For all the agents out there – so many times we hear horror stories about others in the real estate industry, especially in hard times like the Las Vegas real estate market has just struggled through. Agents taking advantage of clients or stabbing each other in the back to make a living, lenders charging exorbitant fees to uninformed but credit worthy borrowers, appraisers doing a “favor” to get an appraisal up to the purchase price, etc. Actually this type of behavior happens in all industries, but the real estate market in particular is spotlighted because of the high dollar amounts involved.

Well, I wanted to share the “good” side of the industry for a change. There are a lot of great agents and lenders out there who really watch out for their clients and each other, but we rarely hear praise when it is well deserved.

Recently one of our agents, Maxine, had an international client that was coming into town to look at Las Vegas homes for a vacation retreat. Before the client got to town Maxine sent him hundreds of properties to review, gave him articles about various neighborhoods to read, and went over long lists of questions about everything from taxes to motor vehicle registration. She even went out and found an extended stay hotel and made a reservation for the client, picked him up at the airport and helped him with his rental car. All this before they even went to look at a single property.

The next few days were spent learning the town and refining where the clients wanted to live. The clients finally settled on Lake Las Vegas, and Maxine made sure they had all the latest information on the litigation and HOAs before deciding on a couple of Las Vegas condo units they were interested in. Both of the condos were bank foreclosures or REOs, and the clients made an offer on one. After days of waiting around for an answer and no word from the listing agent, the clients were frustrated and angry. When they finally received an answer, it was that the property had been sold to someone else.

In the meantime the clients had been reading in our local newspaper about how the REO agents were “playing games” with the offers they received, trying to sell their own listings in-house. Even though these clients adored Maxine and appreciated all she had done for them, they insisted on going straight to the listing agent for their next offer, even though Maxine had shown them the property several times.

And here’s the good part of the story – the listing agents happened to be Leslie and John Carver of Prudential Americana (and also in our office) who handle a large volume of Las Vegas foreclosures. In order to avoid any conflict of interest, Leslie never handles the buyers on her own listings. She refers them out to a “buyer’s agent” to write a contract and represent them. But these clients called her several times and flatly insisted on meeting with her. Finally Leslie agreed to meet them, figuring that once they got into the office she would still turn them over to a buyer’s agent.

When the clients got to the office, they again insisted that Leslie write up the offer even though she explained repeatedly that she would have a buyer’s agent handle it for them and that everything would be fine. But they buyers refused, and finally said to Leslie, “If we wanted to use a buyer’s agent we would use Maxine Sutton of the Tonnesen Team. She’s an excellent agent and she has done everything for us, but we don’t want to miss out on this property. We read what is happening in the newspaper and we will only deal direct with the listing agent.”

Now Leslie knew that these buyers were actually Maxine’s clients. But she also realized that they were not going to be satisfied with anything less than her writing the purchase contract for them. And in the best interests of the seller, the offer needed to be written. So Leslie wrote the offer, but IMMEDIATELY contacted Maxine to let her know what was happening and assure her that if these buyers were successful in securing the property, Maxine would be paid.

Would Maxine ever have known that these buyers went around her to get this property? Probably not. Could Leslie have kept this transaction to herself? Probably yes. But Leslie has such high standards that even if the buyers had not loved Maxine, she would have made sure that Maxine was taken care of.

This story has an even happier ending. The buyers got their property, Maxine was rewarded for all her hard work, and Leslie had the immense satisfaction of knowing she acted to the benefit of all parties in the transaction. Everyone did their job, always keeping the client’s best interests at heart. And that’s why I love working at Prudential Americana. Leslie Carver is a true gem, and the other agents in the company share the same high standards. That’s the way we roll with real estate.