- Brooklyn street in 1974, photographed by Danny Lyon
During a recent tour of open houses for brokers, two of us who hadn’t known each other found ourselves walking together between the new developments on our schedule.
The other broker, a seemingly competent and professional one I’ll call Carrie, asked me which building I liked best.
When I told her, she agreed that the condos were very nice but that she was concerned about the block, which is more appealing that the one in the photo. (As regular readers and others know, the Fair Housing Act bars real estate brokers from labeling blocks or neighborhoods as desirable or not since doing so could be perceived as an act of discrimination. But we can talk among ourselves.)
Carrie allowed as how she was worried that two schools straddled the building we liked. There wouldn’t be enough eyes on the street, a fair objection.
“Will you express that concern to your buyers?” I asked.
“No,” she responded without hesitation.
I kept silent, and she sensed my disapproval.
“Well,” she continued, “I’d tell them if they liked everything else about the apartment.”
In my view, brokers always have a responsibility to let their customers and clients know of issues surrounding any purchase they are contemplating, whether it’s the likelihood of odors from the restaurant below or noise from the bus stop on the corner. That’s part of representing a buyer’s best interests.
What would you do?
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Malcolm Carter
Licensed Associate Real Estate Broker
Senior Vice President
Charles Rutenberg Realty
127 E. 56th Street
New York, NY 10022
M: 347-886-0248
F: 347-438-3201
Malcolm@ServiceYouCanTrust.com
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I, on Cambodia 
I must be a loose cannon. I have loudly objected to some of my buyer’s choices because of high tension wires out back, functional obsolescence, or other undesirable features that would be nightmares if they called me back to list it and sell.
Can’t anyone look past their first transaction with clients? Why can’t we see past the end of our nose?
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Yes! Short-sighted brokers don’t get that the best way to view our business as one grounded in building relationships, not merely in doing deals. We should not be blinded by the desire to make money; we ought to be illuminated by a passion to provide our customers and clients with peerless guidance and advice, even at the expense of a quick buck.
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