A Favorite Book Story

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There is a chapter in The Irreverent Guide to Real Estate called “Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire”. And when I added it to my manuscript, I was a little concerned that I could totally offend some of my fellow agents – and I probably did. Then something really nice came out of it.

A colleague who read the book told me that a few days before reading that chapter, she had been on a listing presentation. The seller asked her how long she had been in real estate, and she said, “Ten years.”

Now, this was true. She had worked in real estate for just over 10 years. What she didn’t mention, however, was that she had been an agent for only the last 11 months – prior to that she had been another agent’s unlicensed assistant.

In “Liar, Liar”, I talk about four different types of lies, only one of which many agents consider to be off limits. We have big, black lies, little white lies, misleads and withholds. My colleague realized that telling her client (yes, she did get the listing) that she’d been in real estate for 10 years did indeed fall into the mislead category. So she called him and cleaned it up.

In her conversation, she offered to cancel the listing agreement or to co-list it with a more experienced agent. Her client was so impressed by her honesty that he wouldn’t think of changing the agreement.

Real estate is a profession that comes with a lot of stress, and I think many of us create more than is necessary by having to keep track of what little white lies we’ve told to which client or colleague. And if our clients are trying to keep track of their own little secrets and fibs, things can get really dicey!

My bet is that my friend’s transaction will be a lot smoother than it would have been if she had swept her little mislead under her new listing’s oriental rug!

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