Go to the gym. Go to Borders Books or Barnes & Noble. What do you see? What’s common to both scenes? Here’s my take: slobs, inconsiderate people lacking basic social skills.

What is it with people who go to the book store read and trash the magazines & books for free while they sip their $5 lattes and then leave the mess for someone else to cleanup? Same at the gym. The one I go to gives you clean towels to use. There’s a basket 15 feet away from towels littered all over the floor by grunge kids to professionals.

I would bet my next commission that if you went to any random sampling of ten homes where these “public slobs” live, you will find an entirely different scene. If you mirrored their public behavior in their home, How do you think they would react?

Inconsideration & Lack of Awareness are alive and well in the real estate profession.

I see agents flipping cigarette butts into garden beds. We have a single-woman client who has had three occasions of agents showing up announced, not leaving their card, and rearranging things in her home. An agent’s access to a lock box does not give them license to act like they are at the gym or the book store.

Tomorrow, I’ll be at the Valley Marketing Association meeting in Pleasanton, CA. Roy Dronkers, this years president, is working on a presentation on Realtor® etiquette because the reports coming into his office indicate this problem is on the increase.

The complaints are rising in state of California as a whole. The Contra Costa Association of Realtors® ran a front page article in their newspaper recently to bring more awareness to professional courtesies for real estate agents. It saddens me to tell you that every point made is in the realm of common sense and courtesy. Here are the points mentioned under Respect for Property:

• Be responsible for everyone you allow to enter listed property.
• Never allow buyers to enter listed property unaccompanied.
• When showing property, keep all members of the group together.
• Enter property only with permission even if you have a lockbox key or combination.
• Leave the property as you found it.
• Be considerate of the property.
• Use the sidewalks.

If you have your real estate license, you’ve been alive long enough to appreciate what a joy it is to encounter a considerate person. Like many of you, I have attended more reach beyond the stars for the supernova, make it bigger than the best, empower your inner business adept, and so on workshops and seminars than you can shake a dog-eared business card at.

Some of the faces have become familiar. I see them at times around the community - at the gym or bookstore leaving the place a mess.

Here’s my point – increasing our consideration skills will bring us greater rewards than we can imagine.

It appears that once again, my mother was correct.