{"id":4008,"date":"2008-08-20T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-08-20T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=4008"},"modified":"2008-08-20T06:38:45","modified_gmt":"2008-08-20T13:38:45","slug":"shoot-the-elephant-in-the-room-before-he-breaks-all-the-furniture-yes-because-even-if-we-dont-always-do-well-by-doing-good-we-must-always-do-the-right-thing-even-when-no-one-else-is-watchi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/4008\/shoot-the-elephant-in-the-room-before-he-breaks-all-the-furniture-yes-because-even-if-we-dont-always-do-well-by-doing-good-we-must-always-do-the-right-thing-even-when-no-one-else-is-watchi\/","title":{"rendered":"“Shoot the elephant in the room before he breaks all the furniture?” Yes, because even if we don’t always do well by doing good, we must always do the right thing — even when no one else is watching."},"content":{"rendered":"

I had a house close yesterday, and there was a little incident as I was trading keys with the buyers that I found instructive.<\/p>\n

Back story: These folks came to me through my Arizona Republic<\/em> column. That column produces almost no business for us, and I don’t milk it for business. But the clients it brings out are invariably very interesting, and they often bring with them multiple transactions. This particular family will do two listings and one purchase, and it was the purchase that closed yesterday.<\/p>\n

They had started out thinking in terms of $800,000 homes in very tony desert locations. There are health issues, so I suggested that a smaller home closer to town might work better. We ended up buying a very nice home that comped for $425,000.<\/p>\n

They were willing to risk losing the home in order to make sure they weren’t overpaying, so we offered $335,000 — $90,000 under two recent comp sales. We got that price, and the seller didn’t flinch at our repair requests. A fun, painless transaction, my kind of deal.<\/p>\n

But wait. Didn’t I betray my sacred duty to milk the consumer for every last penny? I talked myself out of a commission on $800,000, then talked myself down again to a commission on $335,000. I don’t even think that way. I got a smokin’ deal for my buyers, and we all had fun every step of the way.<\/p>\n

Because we’re doing multiple sides, we gave them a break on all three commissions. They didn’t ask, we just did it. Commission is always the elephant in the room, so, no matter what we plan to do, we always<\/em> raise the issue first.<\/p>\n

Why? Because doing the right thing is always the right thing to do, no matter what.<\/p>\n

But also: Because affecting to ignore<\/em> the elephant in the room only serves to make you look oily, evasive and corrupt — and the other party can use your presumptive corruption as leverage against you.<\/p>\n

I believe that we do well by doing good — that consistent virtue reaps commensurate rewards in the long run. But even if we don’t, doing the Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had a house close yesterday, and there was a little incident as I was trading keys with the buyers that I found instructive. Back story: These folks came to me through my Arizona Republic column. That column produces almost no business for us, and I don’t milk it for business. But the clients it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,29,6,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4008","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-egoism-in-action","7":"category-group-therapy","8":"category-marketing","9":"category-real-estate","11":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3369,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3369\/listing-real-estate-the-bloodhound-way-teaching-home-sellers-how-to-pay-attention-to-marketing-techniques-tactics-and-results\/","url_meta":{"origin":4008,"position":0},"title":"Listing real estate the Bloodhound way: Teaching home sellers how to pay attention to marketing techniques, tactics and results","author":"Greg Swann","date":"July 16, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This started out at a response to Jeff Brown in John Rowles' \"dinosaur\" post, but it grew to take on a life of its own. Jeff Brown:Sellers, at least in my experience, have been excellent at discerning one thing \u2014 who produces results.Oh, would this were so! I can take\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":120,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/120\/the-seller-paid-my-closing-costs-with-my-money\/","url_meta":{"origin":4008,"position":1},"title":"“The seller paid my closing costs — with my money!”","author":"Greg Swann","date":"July 22, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Not all of the calls I get in response to my Republic columns are irksome. I like the calls I get from real people, rather than Realtors or brokers. Very few of them are viable, in-the-market, potential clients, but that's not why I write the column. On the other hand,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8241,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/8241\/reflecting-very-briefly-on-the-phoenix-real-estate-market-i-got-my-job-through-the-new-york-times\/","url_meta":{"origin":4008,"position":2},"title":"Reflecting (very) briefly on the Phoenix real estate market: “I got my job through the New York Times”","author":"Greg Swann","date":"May 5, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Last Tuesday, while racing around doing real estate work and preparing for BloodhoundBlog Unchained, I was interviewed by the New York Times about the Phoenix real estate market. I've been interviewed a zillion times before, and it's cool and fun and it means absolutely nothing. I got picked because of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":748,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/748\/louis-vuitton-and-the-french-revolution\/","url_meta":{"origin":4008,"position":3},"title":"Louis Vuitton and the French Revolution","author":"Kris Berg","date":"December 8, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Louis Vuitton and the French Revolution. That is what my daughter told me she would be learning about in her high school European History class. Right war, wrong Louis. On the morning after the Zillow news, I had my own knee-jerk reaction. I subsequently took it upon myself to contact\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":689,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/689\/real-estate-news-there-may-in-fact-truly-be-a-day-beyond-tomorrow\/","url_meta":{"origin":4008,"position":4},"title":"Sunday real estate news: There may, in fact, truly be a day beyond tomorrow . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 26, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"The Arizona Republic is positively ripe with real estate stories today. First up, the amazingly ugly Chateaux on Central condominium development is being forced into bankruptcy. The homes were to sell for $2- to $4-million for apartments as many as six-stories tall -- not a misprint. Freddy Krueger and Damien\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":485,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/485\/repeat-after-me-mr-realtor-what-do-you-charge\/","url_meta":{"origin":4008,"position":5},"title":"Repeat after me: Mr. Realtor, what do you charge?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 29, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"This is my real estate column from today's Arizona Republic (permanent link). Today should be a fun day. My editor told me that, in respose to last week's column, a Realtor called him, threatening to turn me in to the Arizona Department of Real Estate. I can't imagine what the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4008"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4009,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4008\/revisions\/4009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}