Contributor: Malcolm Carter

Malcolm Carter

A real estate broker infrequently has to bid adieu to a buyer or seller who is devious or merely mischievous. And it always is regrettable when that situation arises.

The fact is that, when it comes to real estate, the customer is not always right. In that case, the customer or client should be fired.

With sellers, the time to terminate the relationship is when the property owner insists that the broker conceal a material defect. Of course, that is against the law.

What is “material” can be open to dispute, but the safest course is for the broker to walk away in the event of a disagreement. Examples might be an electrical system that won’t tolerate a hair dryer, a toilet that invariably requires a plumber’s helper, balky radiators that fail to heat a residence beyond the comfort level or an uncontrollable infestation of vermin that appear only at night.

There is a host of examples, and you need think only of issues that have cost you money in the past to imagine some of them.

With buyers, the demarcation between behavior that is acceptable and that which is not does admit to such a bright line.

In my view, those who deserve to be fired are the buyers who act like the Lone Ranger — for example, contacting sellers’ brokers on their own for additional information. I also have problems with buyers who conceal significant information about themselves, don’t otherwise act as if we are a team or misrepresent their intentions or aspects of themselves that could sour a transaction.

If real estate brokers are to be held to a high standard, I believe the folks with whom we work should be as well. In other words, the customer may not engage in misrepresentation, concealment or other inappropriate activity.

By definition, those buyers and sellers who act in bad faith are clearly in the wrong. They are the ones who deserve to be fired.

I’ve done it, and I am sure that I’ll have to do it again.

About Malcolm Carter:

Malcolm’s background has prepared him perfectly for a successful career in real estate since 2002. It has equipped him to provide expert advice–from recommending a sales price to making a purchase offer and onward. And it has proved to him the necessity of providing a level of service that clients can trust implicitly. What is important to them is important to him.

Among highlights of Malcolm’s past experience are speech writer for the Secretary of the Navy; award-winning journalist, including Money magazine; communications executive for an investment bank and various non-profits; founder of the Office of Public Education in the U.S. Treasury Department; president of a $1 million condominium association; and president of a $1.4 million co-operative.

After creating and overseeing a $26 million international public education campaign for the Treasury, he started a thriving real estate business in D.C., Maryland and Virginia. Malcolm is now based in New York City–where he had spent more than 28 years reveling in its diversity, energy and cultural opportunities. His business there is expanding apace.

While in the D.C. area, he was licensed as an Associate Broker or sales associate in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia. He was credentialed as Certified Residential Specialist and Graduate of the Realtor Institute. An Associate Broker in New York City, he now is certified as an e-Pro by having completed a course approved by the National Association of Realtors to provide real estate professionals with the technology tools needed to assist consumers in the purchase or sale of a home.

Malcolm, who has been quoted in the New York Times, the Washington Post and other publications, writes a highly respected blog. In addition he has been cited online frequently by the Wall Street Journal, Curbed, the Real Deal, BrickUnderground, the New York Post, WOR-TV, CoopAndCondo.com, and Crain’s New York.