Five Flights Up The Down Staircase

Light is money. Time is money. High ceilings are money. Even Cynthia Nixon’s long legs and short skirt suits bespeak money: the money she has spent to buy the suits and the money she hopes to make by wearing them. How can poor Morgan Freeman and Diane Keaton, the adorable old Brooklyn interracial couple who retain her to sell their suddenly chic fifth floor walk up, possibly contradict her? All they can do is sweetly try to stay out of the way as she, with bright metallic efficiency, holds Open Houses and tries to sell their property. At least she is a few steps up from Sylvia Miles, the terrifying leopard-clad broker in “Wall Street” who, completely lacking in sympathy for poor Charlie Sheen’s compromised and impoverished position, boasted directly to him about the size of her commission!

Why do movies make real estate agents so unfailingly unattractive? Of course, stereotyping sells tickets, and the lowest common denominator is always good for a few laughs. But couldn’t we, just once, be the good guy? I find it discouraging that, after 30 years of working with talented, committed, caring professionals, the dial of public perception has barely moved an inch. What can we do to be seen for what we actually are: highly professional individuals who succeed only through hard work and the mastery of a complex and extensive array of skills? And why does the movie-going public seem to want to see us as one dimensionally greedy and self-interested?

There is a complex dynamic at work in our interaction with the public and with those we serve. As agents, we are subservient to our principals, who sometimes make choices we don’t agree with but which we, in our position as fiduciaries, must incorporate into our behavior as long as they don’t violate the law or push beyond the grey areas where right and wrong can easily be confused. And sometimes it is simply easier for everyone to attribute to us, the messengers, those traits and actions which really originate with our principals.

This is where the movies may be right. All too often, it IS about the money. Maybe for us (we do after all want to be compensated for what we do), but also for the buyers and sellers we represent. In today’s world, a seller is often seen as a fool rather than as a person of principle if he sticks with a lower offer when more money is proffered, even after a deal has been struck. And if the seller DOES follow the money, it is often the agent who gets blamed. It’s as if real estate agents are cast as the id in the collective real estate unconscious.  We become the lightning rod for behaviors which people prefer not to acknowledge in themselves or the actor across the table. Far easier to cast aspersion onto the agent, whom popular opinion has already labeled someone who, to echo a quote I have heard cast my way on countless occasions, “cares only about (his) commission.”

I have devoted a lot of time over the arc of my career to addressing this issue. I work with the Real Estate Board of New York to teach and enforce the tenets of ethical behavior which form the underpinning of our way of doing business. I work as an instructor at both the Board and in independent institutions to impart basic rules of business integrity and fiduciary duty to those new to our industry. And I am consistently impressed by the high standards of the vast majority of agents with whom I come into contact.

Agents are the lightning rods in deals because blaming us creates an easy out for the principals who prefer to think more highly of each other.  And of course, we are far from perfect. But believe me, after years working 10 hours a day with agents from all walks of life and parts of the country, we are rarely Sylvia Miles or even Cynthia Nixon. Mostly we are ethical, concerned professionals with our clients’ welfare more at heart than the earning of a quick few bucks. But it seems that, at least in the movies, that will remain our little secret!

 

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