Unethical? Inconsiderate? With Web 2.0 & Blogging, The REALTOR® Code of Ethics Needs to Change
I'm sorry to hear about misfortune people experience from unethical practices. Those who believe in ethics use it as a guideline for best practices in their actions and their manners. Although ethics change across cultural lines people in almost all societies know when they are being rude and unethical. The problem with ethical codes and other codes of conduct is they are simple to break. Interestingly there is a difference between ethical code and being ethical. Ethical code as you know from the dictionary describes the rule of conduct for a culture. Being Ethical is another story. I never thought there was a difference between the two until I went for my undergraduate in psychology. I had to write a paper on ethics and found myself wrestling with finding the difference between ethical code and acting ethical. The difference, after I found it, seemed pretty simple. Ethics is a rule of code we are supposed to follow. Being Ethical or acting Ethically is how we choose to act once those rules are driven into our minds. No matter how much we are trained by our parents, religion and society to do the right things in the end we are still confronted with free thought and free choice. Free thought allows us to make conscious decisions about actions we will or will not take. A person's objective reality and conscience forms their view of ethical reality. If a person chooses to throw aside what his or her culture has taught them about ethical conduct - right or wrong - it is very difficult to make them act ethically while they are busy choosing their own agenda. To act Ethically is to utilze all the tools you were given to make sound judgment calls - to be fair - to be honest - to do the right thing - to consider the impact of your actions on others. A sane person knows the difference between right and wrong. If you were brought up in the Judea/ Christian Culture or any culture that passes on a good ethical foundation to their children then you should know the difference between what is right and what is wrong. I have had people abuse my site by using it for their own purposes. It is wrong and it is unethical The problem is I don't believe that there is any regulatory board in the world that can stop somebody from doing something like this. Certainly you could fine them, that may stop them from going on your site, at least for awhile. But rest assured another way will be found to stomp on your toes. I am not naive, but I do believe the majority of people do make an effort to act Ethically most of the time - maybe for the simple reason that it is in their best interest.
Real Estate Blogging, Web 2.0 and the REALTOR® Code of Ethics. By Lisa C. Hill, "THE SMART CHOICE!"
This post is probably preaching to the choir for most of our Active Rain members, and for that I am glad. I believe that 99.9% of the members here on Active Rain are great bloggers and a good fit, as I recently blogged in my post about the pieces of the Active Rain puzzle. But I just found a comment on one of my blogs that is a perfect indication of someone who is a piece of a different puzzle. I'm writing this blog post as an example for Active Rain newbies, and/or for those who are new to the world of blogging and online social networking.
We all need to support each other by commenting on the blogs we read. It's usually not difficult to find something good or encouraging to say that will help the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) of the posts we read. It's doing unto others as we would have them do unto us. In the world of blogging and commenting, we need to be considerate of the blog space of the person who posted the blog. That being said, here is an example of how NOT to comment.
I just received a comment on a blog that I posted about a year ago. That post was about my daughters' graduation from Spruce Creek High School, and the Honors Banquet we attended. The comment I just received was from a local real estate agent, of whom I have never heard, who placed embedded links in the words "Spruce Creek", which he used twice in his comment. The embedded links pointed to this agents' own web site.
Now, it has been a LONG time since I've had someone so blatantly disrespect my blog space with such an inconsiderate, rude, unconscionable comment. It may not be an actual violation of the REALTOR® Code of Ethics, but it's definitely unethical. Here's the definition of the word "Ethics" from www.dictionary.com...
Ethics: 1. (used with a singular or plural verb) A system of moral principles: the ethics of a culture.
2. The rules of conduct recognized in respect to a particular class of human actions or a particular group, culture, etc.: medical ethics; Christian ethics.
3. Moral principles, as of an individual: His ethics forbade betrayal of a confidence.
4. (usually used with a singular verb) That branch of philosophy dealing with values relating to human conduct, with respect to the rightness and wrongness of certain actions and to the goodness and badness of the motives and ends of such actions.
To finalize this, we all know that Web 2.0 progressed so quickly that many people, and branches of different industries have been unable to keep up. To me, this is a prime example of unethical behavior, but it's not addressed in the REALTOR® Code of Ethics, or licensing laws. In my opinion, there are changes that need to be made to our Code of Ethics (or real estate laws), in order to bring the real estate industry up-do-date with the way REALTORS® do business in todays' age of technology.
What is your opinion? What changes do you think are needed in our Code of Ethics (or laws), for it to remain current and exigent for REALTORS®, so that we can remain set apart from other industries that lack this element of quality control?
**Addition: Read my responses in the comments.
By Lisa C. Hill, Real Estate Agent and proud member of the Daytona Beach Area Association of REALTORS®, and the National Association of REALTORS®.
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