Ethics Really Do Matter
Posted on April 14, 2007
Filed Under Real Estate Investing |
I just don’t understand why people make it hard on themselves. There is an exchange over at the Magic Bullets site discussing how to approach a very reluctant homeowner.
One suggestion was to just place a for sale or lease sign in their yard and then when they called, apologize and then try to buy their house.
Essentially, it is the same approach spammers use when they put a line in a spam that says, if you don’t want anymore of these, click here. What really happens is you get all sorts of new spam. So, this investor wants to spam the homeowner and then when they complain, spam them again with a low ball offer to buy their house.
When I first read it, I thought it was a joke. Just one of those off-the-wall ideas you come up with when trying to strategize a solution to a problem. But, incredibly, when someone questioned the soundness of that strategy, the poster actually defended it and even tried to rationalize it.
To me the risks of such an approach goes way beyond the obvious potential criminal prosecution for any number of things, like, oh, fraud. It stabs at the heart of credibility an investor must have in his community.
Do you really think the homeowner is going to be receptive to an offer from someone they see as dishonest?
If you are an active investor in your community you can strive to be the first choice people want to deal with or you can be the one they turn to as a last resort. In my mind, the strategy outlined above clearly puts you on the latter path.
Real estate investors suffer from an image problem and are often compared to used car salesmen. Actions like the strategy above do nothing to help the situation.
Ethics matter.
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3 Responses to “Ethics Really Do Matter”
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Hi Tim!
I concur your statements regarding ethics is a requirement of all good investors!
Although the poster brought it up, I sensed that he wanted to pick our brains. At least, I hope that’s what he was doing. No way were we going to encourage any Magic Fambly member spam unsuspecting homeowners, much less act on illegal activities.
Let’s just hope that we’ve managed to change his mind and begin using his common sense as well as acknowledge that using good work ethic will lead him to better RE roads.
Debbie
Magic Bullets member
Being the one who was first to respond to and question the ethics and legal aspects of the previously mentioned posters idea.
I was extrememly happy to see that others questioned his potential actions. Tim, Debbie, and Howard from the Magic Bullets Family all came forward to try to put our fellow MB Member on the right path. Kudos to all.
As Tim said Ethics do matter.
Keith
Magic Bullets Member
Good to see a site that emphasizes the fact that ethics are important. Real estate can be a dirty business, unfortunately, but dishonesty is not a sustainable business model.
Good luck with this blog! Chris