There are a handful of investors I work with, and usually I speak to one if not more on a daily basis. This question is most easily posed with regards to them, but this also applies to retail clients, both sellers and buyers.
My talk with every client, including a repeat when I speak to an investor and it's time to resign the next buyer agreement, or yet another listing agreement...my talk is always the same when it comes to confidentiality. I'd argue they say yes and nod, but don't truly understand.
While I work most diligently to their efforts be they a retail buyer or an investor buyer, I'll work to whatever protocols we've defined. Whatever I've been tasked with is what I do. The same is true for sellers, be they retail or repeat investor sellers.
Surely the entire Active Rain community agrees with me and expects no less.
But some of these clients are very smart, very creative. At what point can I use one client's ideas with another client? As good as I am, even with 14 years and with a creative & inquisitive mind, I've had clients with amazing ideas.
My position to them is that if an idea comes from me, I'm free to offer that to any other client as well. If an idea comes from a client, then I am not free to offer that to any other client until the current relationship is completed. Otherwise, there could be a conflict. If the current relationship is with a repeat client, potentially then I'll not be able to use that great idea with anyone else. The protection is because anyone else could be a competitor to my client.
They nod and say yes, but I must believe if I wasn't working that way, and a client realized how they'd been hurt, they would have rights to argue I'd hurt them. Surely I sleep better in protecting them, even if they may not fully understand. That's okay, that's how we have deep trust.
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