A Class Act!

In the past week I became aware that clients who had been working with one of the Realtors from my office had a shift in loyalty. This happens, usually due to a misunderstanding and no fault of the great realtor they started with.

To appreciate the story know that after a close chance to sell their home and purchase another one, the buyers intending to purchase the client's home (which would set the domino reaction) couldn't complete; so the home listing expired, unsold.

As it happened, the original buyers came back with an offer a few months later since they were able to now access the necessary funds. The clients were presented with this offer again and the chance to buy their dream home. Unfortunately they decided to shut out their original realtor and use one from another company that had helped them almost two decades ago.

The second realtor was completely within his rights to think "sucks to be you" in reference to our office realtor. After all, the home had been expired over 60 days and the original realtor had no claim on any proceeds even though she was the one that initially negotiated the deal on both the sale and purchase for these people.

The Class Act part of this story is that the successful second realtor not only contacted our office to update everyone of what the status was; he also referred the lion's share of the commission on the sale of the clients home to the original realtor. And, beyond that, he also referred a portion of the new home purchase to our office realtor. What a Class Act! Makes me proud of our profession.

By being so above board, generous and clear, this colleague earned immense respect and good will; not to mention the ongoing wish to do business with him.

In circumstances good and bad we always have the opportunity to be a Class Act. The impact of such actions is a living legacy. All too often short sighted greed rules the day. In this case, the fine realtor who was so generous doubtless asked himself the golden question: "if I was on the other end of this, how would I want it to be handled."

Some say what goes around comes around and I think that's true. By taking the long view, the kind and honourable action I believe we set in motion all manner of great future returns -- not to mention the immediate gift of feeling great and building friendships!