Greenwich Connecticut is a nice to place to live. Part of its being a nice place to live is that people are nice. By this I don’t mean just that they are courteous, which they are. Whether it be at our bump out intersection on Greenwich Avenue, someone holding the door for a group of people or just who get off the elevator first, I often see this Greenwich competitive politeness, where people defer so as to let other people to go first. This competitive politeness can take up to 30 seconds, just to decide who will be first off the elevator.
Being nice goes way beyond simple courtesy and it makes a difference as to whether deals get done. Greenwich residents should be trustworthy, honest and confidential and expect their agents to be the same. This may sound like the Boy Scout oath, but it’s become even more crucial with the coarsening of politics, social interactions and social media.
We have over 1,000 members of the Greenwich MLS and our team regularly deals with the active agents every month. The very large majority are good agents that can be trusted. When they say something, it can be relied on. A lot of that is due to good parents, but being a trustworthy agent also has an economic advantage. Trustworthy agents get more deals done and are able to do difficult deals that might not otherwise get done.
This is not to say that all Greenwich agents are saints; far from it. We have our share of puffery, with tiny little houses being called cozy and weird layouts being described as unique. What you don’t see are agents making up facts to suit their own needs.
When I was first starting out, I did my share of representing tenants in rental deals (a great place for new agents to hone their skills.) I had one landlord’s agent who the first two times that I made offers on behalf of my tenants, called me back and told me that just a few hours later that amazingly she had just gotten a higher offer. These listings were not hot listings. They had both been on for over a month, which for a Greenwich rental is a long time. When I made an offer on a third property and I heard that “amazingly” she had just gotten another, I didn’t believe her and my client got the apartment at his original offer.
The problem now is that everything she says I take with a large grain of salt. For example, when she tells me that $3,000,000 is as high as her buyer is willing to go, I’m not sure if that is true. When my seller hears that he may decide not to make a counteroffer, since they are too far apart. If I tell my seller that the agent many not be accurately stating the case, my seller may well think they are not negotiating in good faith and once again decide not to counter.
In some places, back when I was an attorney actively negotiating deals in many places are saw that lying was an accepted norm. I’ve seen negotiators whose attitude is that if they can lie to the other side and rip off the other side, that’s the other side’s fault for not being smart enough to see through the lies. While that’s acceptable in some places, it’s not in Greenwich. Many of our residents, or would be residents, will just flat out not want to enter into negotiations, or continue negotiations, with someone who thinks lying is a legitimate negotiating tactic.
We only have a few agents who are perceived as untrustworthy and most agents, who have been in the business very long, know who they are. It’s one thing when an agent will lie, the bigger problem comes when a seller wants you to either lie or more commonly not reveal a material condition. Agents have an obligation to keep their clients’ personal affairs confidential. I’ve had clients who are getting divorced and even their children don’t know or who are suffering from a very serious illness. All of this personal information stays confidential.
Confidentiality ends when agents actually know material facts that the buyer would want to know. Then the agent’s obligation is to reveal this information even if the seller would prefer to keep it confidential. In reality, it is in the seller’s best interest, since hiding material facts would likely result in a lawsuit. Also, there is a good chance that the buyer’s inspector or title examiner will find this information and once again the buyer – seller relationship will be poisoned.
Only once have I ever had a seller, be absolutely insistent that I not disclose material facts. Fortunately, a listing agreement hadn’t been signed yet and I was able to step away from the transaction. I heard at least one other Greenwich agent did the same thing. By the third agent, he realized that he would have to disclose it and did put it in the state mandated property disclosure form.
Another way that some sellers think that they can avoid disclosing detrimental information is by not filling out the state mandated property disclosure. If they do this then state mandates that the seller pays the buyer $500. The problem with this is that the agent still has the duty to disclose material information about the property. Agents tend to go out of their way in such situation to disclose this information, so that the buyer can make a fair offer considering all the facts and can’t turn around and sue the seller and the broker for hiding material facts.
We have some of the top agents in the nation here who have had decades of experience in prior careers negotiating important deals. We often have hard negotiations, between the buyers and sellers’ agent but for most deals, it is pretty principled negotiations. It’s not in any agent’s interest to get known for cutting corners, nor is it in their client’s interest. For things like that Greenwich is a small town and word gets around.
Having said that, agents are people too and can be tempted to shade the truth, if it will get the deal done and get them a commission. They can also be pushed by their clients to not reveal material facts. An agent or a client might get away with it once or even more, but it’s more likely they have created a reputation that will last for years or decades.
Trustworthiness, it’s what sells houses.
