We had an open house yesterday at the Waialae Iki listing.  After setting up, an assistant greeted guests and I went to go look at a few other houses for prospective buyers.

An hour later, I returned to the listing and the assistant told me about the visitors that had come.  I took a look at the sign in sheet and noticed two realtor business cards on the counter, next to the open house flyers.  Both agents work for the same company and they arrived together.  Then I noticed that MY business cards had been turned over and moved to the side, away from the flyers!

Now who do you think would do that?  I am pretty certain it was the two realtors that left the cards next to my flyers.  So sneaky, in my mind it's actions like that which give all realtors a bad reputation.

This wasn't the first time, either.  Several months ago, during another open house an agent (not one of these two) looked at our listing, then put a stack of his business cards RIGHT ON TOP OF MINE!  How blatant is that?

The assistant at that open house noticed the other agent's business cards within minutes and put them right where they belonged, in the trash!

These days, sales are slow and most of us realtors have to work harder to make a living.  I ask that we all keep our ethics high and not resort to lowdown tactics to pickup, or even steal customers from other agents.  Bad deeds might make a few dollars in the short run, but they willl bite back later in life or after that!

Aloha, Mike Bates

Hawaii real estate