*Please note this blog post was guest written by the CEO of Mobile Austin Notary.
Did I get your attention with that headline?
I hope I did, let's first define by Wikipedia what Ethics and Business ethics is.
Ethics is a major branch of philosophy, encompassing right conduct and good life. It is significantly broader than the common conception of analyzing right and wrong. A central aspect of ethics is "the good life", the life worth living or life that is simply satisfying, which is held by many philosophers to be more important than moral conduct.
Business ethics is a form of applied ethics that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that arise in a business environment.
So what do ethics and business ethics have to do with the death of the real estate industry and the recession the U.S. is soundly in your wondering?
First let's me tell you a few short stories, one was from today that actually inspired me to write this blog post. It was told to me from one of my mobile Texas notaries named Jenette. I was very proud of her for what she said and did today.
I asked Jenette to write out exactly the dialogue that transpired with a caller today. I will then translate afterwards.
M = Jenette The Mobile Notary
C = Potential Customer
M: Hello... How can I help you?
C: Are you available tonight? My regular notary canceled because of the weather.
M: Yes sir, most of this evening I am how can I help you?
C: I need to get a neighborhood petition signed and notarized by
several people tonight. Can you walk the neighborhood and do these
with me?
M: Well I can walk the neighborhood fine, but that's a lot of
paperwork to carry around in this weather. How many people need to
sign?
C: What is this going to cost me?
M: Well our charges are $1 per mile and $6 per my stamp and signature.
C: Well you are only going to stamp and sign once, we can walk and see
all of them sign and you can notarize the last page.
M: Is this a numbered document? Are all the pages attached somehow?
C: Well no but you will see them all sign.
M: Sir if you are going to do something like this every signature
needs to be notarized or the set needs to be attached to show there
has been nothing added while the notary was not there.
C: Well that is not how the last notary and I did things!
M: Well sir it is the legal way to do it.
C: Well if I pay you like you stamped and signed each page can you do
it my way?
M: No sir I would need to actually do it for your documents to be legal.
C: Well you are being ridiculous.
M: Well sir I'm sorry I can't help you.
C: Hangs up
In layman's terms the customer wanted Jenette and Mobile Austin Notary to break the law by notarizing documents that she wouldn't of saw signed in person. To add insult to injury this man wanted us to do it knowingly and I guess this other unethical notary had done this before with him.
Bottom line no one in the world would've been any wiser if we actually took the job. Jenette and all our Austin notaries works off commission, so she didn't make any money and my company didn't make a dime either. Would my company and Jenette's pockets be fuller if we took the job, most certainly yes.
So why didn't we take the job and the money like many others in a depressed economy would've in a New York Minute? Let's turn the shoe around, if it would've been YOU in similar type of situation in your specific real estate industry niche what would YOU do?
One word - Ethics
Money alone CAN'T buy you a clean conscious in life nor can it help you when you look yourself in the mirror and allow you to see a proud and integrity filled person in the reflection. Strong business ethics has built the greatest companies in the world, and when those ethics were lost or misplaced those same companies were destroyed for their lack of business ethics.
How many legendary insurance, mortgage, banks and investment companies with 100+ year track records have filed bankruptcy, need billions of dollars in bail outs and lost shareholders billions of dollars in the last few months? We haven't seen this since the Great Depression some 75 years ago.
This happened in my opinion for one reason....lack of ethics in the real estate industries part mostly, and a lot of poor judgment and greed on people's parts.
Say you're about to make a big commission selling a house or maybe you're the broker setting up the deal.
The customer likes this $400,000 house, but this other $500,000 home there in love with big time.
They technically "qualify" for the $500K house, but only if they extend themselves to 40%+ of their total household income that will go toward mortgage, taxes and insurance and they take out a 5 year adjustable mortgage.
How many of these have you or did you see the last five years? Maybe it was $100K-$150K or $1M - $2M dollar homes. I bet it was ALOT!
Did you the experienced realtor and broker try to educate, teach or talk the customer out of a very bad potentially horrific financial meltdown for being so overleveraged?
Or did you do like the vast majority of brokers and realtors did that has been proven without question now, you said, "Hell yes buy that more expensive house you only live once". Then you cashed the fat extra $3K-$6K commission check and went on to the next deal without batting an eyelash.
Now I'm sure there will be many comments arguing why this is ok, I'm also aware that you can't talk some people out of anything. When their mind is set, there is no changing them. I understand and realize that. But did you really care about your customer to be honest and tell them the good, the bad and the ugly? Did you give them all the "what ifs" scenarios.
•1. What if that low ARM interest rate of 4% doubles in 3-5 years can you afford that?
•2. What happens if you get laid off or fired you from your job?
•3. What happens if your company you own goes out of business or business slows down?
•4. What happens if you have an unexpected financial crisis come up?
•5. What happens if the exploding home appreciation rates slow down or goes down, what then?
My assumption is most real estate professionals and companies DIDN'T ask these questions or bring these valid points up to customers before or during the closing process. If this was done across the board nationally, this market and real estate meltdown would have never happened. Most experts agree with this analysis.
From the CEO down in all these companies at the local, state and national branches should have been preaching strong business ethics.
But we all know that didn't happen now don't we. The chasing of the almighty dollar won out sadly didn't it, how many lives and companies were destroyed because we simply lacked the strong ethics to say and do something that would certainly lower our personal incomes, but completely raise our personal and business integrity net worth.
I'm certainly not one to condemn or judge anyone person or company for their business decisions, this is and wasn't my intent please note.
One last story that I've never told to anyone till know. I wasn't ever going to share this story to be quite honest, but I think it has merit with the topic of ethics.
A few weeks ago I was in the parking lot of a 7-11 on Guadalupe Street in the heart of the UT campus. I am an infamous bachelor that doesn't cook since he works 100+ hours a week in multiple businesses. So 7-11 is my quick fix for food on a lot of days. Now that you know how sad and pathetic my daily menu is I will continue to the point. You can send me desserts and or any homemade food ladies to my corporate address; I promise I will eat anything you send me! LOL! ; )
While I was walking into the store I saw a Velcro wallet (they still make those I said out loud to myself) sitting on the ground by the curb. I saw a few college kids about 20ft away on the opposite side and figured one of them would pick it up before I walked back out.
Few minutes passed and I watched the students, none of them seemed to be missing a wallet.
I walked back out and I picked up the wallet. I asked the students if it was there's they all said no.
I took the wallet back to my place and looked at the insides of it. About $50 cash, FL driver's license (I figured a college student) and Bank of America check card. I thought I will take it into Bank of America and maybe they can track down the owner by using his check card. Then I thought they have strict policies about lost cards, they would cancel his card and probably never send him his wallet anyways.
Then I didn't want to send this kids wallet back to FL, since what good is that going to do him while his in college in Texas. But as the luck Gods would have I kept digging in his wallet and found a paycheck stub from the legendary restaurant in Austin called, Gueros Taco Bar. More luck would have it, his Austin address was on the pay stub. So I decided buy a big envelope and mail it to him.
But before I did I took a post it note and put it on the inside of his wallet. It said, "Good people still exist in the world, your generation needs to help us all remember that". I didn't put my first name or phone number. I didn't tell anyone in my life the good deed I did.
Because like ethics regardless if no one would ever know what you did or say or didn't say or do. YOU will be your judge and jury in this life, what YOU do and say always without question effect YOU positively or negatively.
My wish is for you is to be the most ethical business person and individual you can be, it's definitely not the easiest or most profitable to be this way I can attest to that. But the non-monetary rewards are truly endless within yourself I promise.
CEO/Mobile Austin Notary
www.mobileaustinnotary.com
www.twitter.com/austinnotary
www.activerain.com/pecs29
"The Nicest Notaries & Process Servers in Texas, That Go To You 24/7!"
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