Trust is not a new concept

Trust seems to be the new black. 

It's discussed at every conference and in many blog posts.  Heck, there's even a bestselling book called "Trust Agents" (which is a great read, by the way - I highly recommend it).  It's as if the concept was just created.

It's actually been around a little while.

Several years ago (before "trust" became all the rage), my wife and I put an offer in on a house, which was accepted.  The contract had a home inspection contingency.  Fortunately for us, the inspection took place on a rainy day (not unlike today, which made me recollect this story first thing this morning).  The home inspector came out and noticed some dampness around the window sills.  Further prodding disclosed some atypical wear around the frames, as well as some rot on the sills.  Even further inspection revealed that the said window sills were recently painted -- the paint was still wet.  At one point, the inspector pushed his thumb through one of the rotted sills like it was a baguette.  Naturally, we brought these issues (among others) to the attention of the listing agent and seller.

Trust tested.

The sellers claimed to be unaware of the issues.  Said they had lived there for X years, and it was only during THIS storm that the windows seemed to leak.  They mentioned nothing about recent repairs.  Of course they would fix the problems, they said, but the existence of them was a total shock.  At this point I wasn't sure whether to be impressed or terrified that strange people (or aliens) came into the house in the middle of the night - unbeknownst to the homeowners - to make repairs, but I was pretty sure I didn't want the house.

Trust failed.

Look, we probably would have still bought the house had the sellers come clean on the window issue.  There were other problems, but the REAL underlying theme was that we didn't trust these people.  What else was wrong?  What further defects were latently hiding, only to spring up on us after settlement?  Even the most conservative of inspectors won't find everything.

Trust is crucial to every business dealing.  It's not new. What is new is that you can be called out on your lack of trustworthiness much more easily today, and the whole world can read about it.  The mechanics of every deal are obviously important, but I would suggest it's equally important that a certain level of trust be established among all parties to any transaction, and especially in a real estate deal.

Photo credit: Olga Dietrich