Beginning in 1976 and almost every year since 1990, Gallup has polled the public to rate the honesty and ethics of various professions. Every year since 1999, nurses have topped the list. Other professions routinely in the Top 5 are doctors, pharmacists, grade school teachers and military officers. And Realtors? Realtors are in the bottom 20% alongside salespeople, union leaders and state politicians. Why does the real estate industry ignore this and what will it take to turn this glaring defect around?
Attorneys and TV Reporters are rated more trustworthy than Realtors.
In December 2014, Gallup conducted a telephone poll whereby they asked the general public to rate a list of eleven professions on their Honesty and Ethical standards. Very High, High, Average, Low and Very Low.
An alphabetized list of the eleven professions is available here. The list also shows the results of past polls so you can view any up/down trend in the rating or if the rating has stayed steady high, steady average or steady low.
A quick review of the leaders and laggards in the poll tells me three things:
- Professionals who consistently rate the best have; high quality levels of initial and recurring training, merit based leadership and internal discipline, both as an individual and as an organization.
- Professions that genuinely serve and safeguard others rank the highest
- Money and income are not primary issues that determine ranking.
Wouldn't you agree? That the above three observations clearly place nurses, doctors, pharmacists, grade school teachers and military officers at the top of ethical professions?
Since 1977, Realtors have averaged a Very High+High combined rating of only 16%.
Similar ratings for the Top 5 range from 80% to 65%.
If you believe the three above observations, then please consider:
Training
- Initial and recurring training, whether sanctioned by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), the particular state or local Real Estate board, when compared to the training of the Top 5 Professions, is a joke. Classroom studies are facile and tedious, on-line training is specifically and technically designed to provide the answers to the test taker before answering the question and neither cognitive thinking nor analytical skills play any role.
Merit based Leadership
- Leadership is based almost exclusively on money. If you have the money you can start a brokerage. Experienced Realtors perform some training (see above), take a few tests, rename themselves a Broker and start a business. Leadership is not learned by moving up the ranks or getting promoted. Brokers have money. Leaders in each of the Top 5 professions start at an entrance level and move up based on their skills to create a better profession. In real estate, doing the right thing is not grounds for reward, unless there is a commission involved. For many, money is the foundation of leadership.
Internal Discipline
- Overwhelmingly, the disciplinary decisions I have seen made regarding alcohol or drug abuse, ethics, sexual harassement, favoritism, etc., have been made not on whether or not the individual did the right or wrong thing, but on the money or the number of sales from the Realtor. M-O-N-E-Y. If the real estate industry will not self correct, will not un-greed itself, then how can the real estate industry expect to be considered a Top 5 profession?
Service professions can be hard to quantify. Nurses and doctors do not cure every patient. Teachers do not educate every student. Military officers do not win every battle. Realtors do not sell every listed property.
Is this all these professions do? Cure, educate, win, sell? No.
Service industries live and breathe on their ethical caring for their client; pre-empting problems, implementing solutions, honest communication and working with, not against, their compatriots for a solution that benefits the patient, student, citizen and client.
Does the public believe that Realtors honestly and ethically care for their clients, communicate honestly or work with their compatriots. Not according to decades of surveys. If the public does not believe Realtors act in an ethical manner to care and serve their clients, then who does the public believe Realtors actually care for and serve? Themselves.
How to fix these repetitive and accurate perceptions of the real estate industry.
- Training must be more rigorous both initial and recurring. Training must be designed to weed out both weak applicants and those who do not maintain a professional standard. A PayPal account and signing an attendance sheet should not be all that is necessary to become and remain as a Realtor.
- Leadership for sale must stop. Brokers should be separate from Realtors. Entry level Brokers should learn from seasoned Brokers and grow up seeing and experiencing leadership. Realtors who crossover to Broker should be the exception, not the rule. And if crossover, leave Realtoring behind and be a Broker. As leaders, Brokers should focus nearly, if not exclusively, on developing and implementing professional competence and ethical behavior by and among their Realtors.
- Internal discipline must reflect a totality of service and care. Realtors must accept and be held responsible for the care and maintenance of their fiduciary responsibility to client and client's property. I know Realtors who brag about millions in sales but won't spend a few hundred to keep their client's property clean and orderly, who limit their caring and service to what they are "contracted and paid" to do, who buy listings, blame the owner when the over priced listing does not sell and who manipulate opportunity to their best advantage. For too many, Ethics is a fluff training course mandated by NAR, not an integral component of their skill set. And the public knows these Realtors by the thousands.
Summary
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) established their Code of Ethics in 1903. The code spells out the professional responsibilities and expectations of NAR's 1 million Realtor members to their clients, customers, fellow Realtors and the general public.
Despite this, polling numbers on the issues of Honesty and Ethics remain consistently low. How many Realtors have you heard referred to as an Officer and a Gentleman? A real Lady? What are the Standards for Success among Realtors?
If NAR and individual Realtors really care about public service and perception, and after decades of low poll numbers I am not sure they do, NAR and its members must admit that their low standards are real, widely despised and must resolve to cure these maladies themselves.
Until NAR completes such a reinvention, agile companies like Zillow and Trulia will beat NAR at its own game. Soon enough gig and gig-like companies like HomeAway, AirBnb, Uber, Public Portals, E-Signature, Etsy, etc., will eat NAR and its membership alive.
Maybe that'll be a good thing.
If you have any questions or comments please contact me here.
Good luck!