I am not much of a bureaucrat. I admit, I've always been a bit of a gray-area rule follower. Twelve items in the 10 item or less lane at the grocery store, no problem! Speed limit 65, I can go 70! Mandatory masks... well, don't get me started.
However, I take my profession seriously. I feel that as an agent, I am duty-bound to follow the Code of Ethics that are in place. The public won't take real estate agents seriously if we don't take our profession seriously. So, even as a gray-area rule follower in some aspects of my life, I don't mess around with my livelihood.
Anyway, Olivia decided to walk into my listing on Friday without an appointment. My seller works from home. She works on confidential information during the day and cannot have anyone in the house without violating Federal law. This is a big deal. There have been no showings until after 4 p.m. for that reason (and as of this writing Friday afternoon, I have four offers). But Olivia had her buyers with her and stood in my seller's foyer around noon and said, "Since we are here, can we just peek?"
My seller didn't know what to do and let her in.
When I called Olivia to give a bit of coaching, explaining that going into a home without agent permission is against the rules and subject to a fine, Olivia got pissy. I don't handle deflection pissy well--especially when I am taking up for a greater cause. In this case, the greater cause is keeping the professional reputation of realtors everywhere in the highest light.
Because Olivia didn't want to chat about lessons learned, I did the next best thing. I sent a note to the association and to her broker, using my Big Girl Designated Broker Voice (tm) and explained that Ms. Olivia violated a rule within the Association and was not open to further coaching, therefore I felt the need to escalate this. Poor Olivia is now being slapped with a $500 fine.
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