Ethics and your blog

I’ve never seen anyone write a blog post regarding ethics as it relates to a real estate blog.  Given that REALTORS^® all subscribe to a code of ethics and all all licensed, this seems a little strange, but perhaps it’s because being ethical on a blog isn’t well understood.  Or perhaps it’s because those that are ethical are saving their finger pointing for a time when they might find it useful.  Who knows.

At any rate, I thought I’d run down a few things that I find grossly problematic in the RE.Net, and pass along a few pointers that will hopefully keep the finger pointing away from you.

For the most part, it is pretty easy to be ethical on your blog, and in the past I’ve seen very few gross violations.  The violation I’ve seen the most often, however, is when a REALTOR publicly bashes another REALTOR^® during a heated blog war.  The pre-amble of the Code of Ethics clearly states that:

Realizing that cooperation with other real estate professionals promotes the best interests of those who utilize their services, REALTORS^® urge exclusive representation of clients; do not attempt to gain any unfair advantage over their competitors; and they refrain from making unsolicited comments about other practitioners.

Make a special note of that last important component:  “they refrain from making unsolicited comments about other practitioners.”  If you engage in a blog war, and start making derogatory remarks (whether they are true or not!) about your fellow REALTOR, in my opinion, you are making unsolicited comments, and you are committing an ethics violation.

The point of this was made clear to me, when I recently attended an ethics class taught by my broker (John Foltz) and Bill Gray (Arizona School of Real Estate & Business), in which they belabored this point, giving as an example: If you meet someone that is a client of John Doe REALTOR, you cannot tell this client, “Oh, I know John…did you know he was recently contacted by the police regarding …”.  Even if this police contact were true, you provided this info about John Doe in an unsolicited manner, for the pure purpose of discrediting John Doe, to put yourself at an advantage.  Bringing this to our blogs, I don’t think there’s any doubt that nearly 100% of our blog visitors are not soliciting specific information about a different REALTOR, when they come.  Given that, if we post derogatory comments, which are now surely unsolicited, in my opinion, we are committing an ethics rules violation.

So, if there aren’t at least 100 other good reasons not to engage in a blog war, let this be #1 on the list.  Personally speaking, my membership to my association, or even the fine associated with an ethics violation, is absolutely not worth whatever could possibly be gained, by getting involved in a blog war, and calling out the merits (or lack thereof) of your fellow REALTOR.

Another ethics violation that I’ve (fortunately) seen on the rarest of occasions refers to SoP 1-9 and keeping confidential client information confidential.  I know that I am constantly on the lookout for good blog content, but good blog content cannot be the confidential information provided to you by your client, even if it’s critical to “tell the story”.  If you need to use confidential information to tell the story, this will be a story you don’t tell on your blog (or anywhere, for that matter).

Perhaps the most common ethics violation I see is with regard to Article 10.  Actually, that’s an exaggeration (something that Article 2 says to avoid), but it’s close enough to the point I want to make:  Article 10 says we will not deny our “services to any person for reasons of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin.”

The consistent problem I find on the vast majority of blogs is the lack of a fair housing logo on display.  The Arizona real estate commissioner believes this logo should be on every page and visible without scrolling.  Let me repeat that, in case it didn’t sink it.  Visible on every page without scrolling the browser.  Where is your fair housing logo?  Do you even have one?  Is it in the footer, where you have to scroll waaaay down to the bottom to see it?  Here’s an idea:  move your fair housing logo to the header or the top of your sidebar.

And finally, harkening back to the preamble of the Code of Ethics:

REALTORS^® can take no safer guide than that which has been handed down through the centuries, embodied in the Golden Rule, “Whatsoever ye would that others should do to you, do ye even so to them.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

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