Running head: SITUATIONAL FACTORS AND ETHICAL FRAMINGS 1

Ethical Real Estate Decisions

John Dandoy

Azusa Pacific University

LRDS 563

June 30, 2017

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Being a realtor comes with a great deal of responsibility both in terms of helping buyers

and sellers get through their transactions successfully and acting ethically all the time. In fact,

ethical behavior is the foundational success in this industry, which requires earning the trust of

either the seller, that of the buyer, or both parties which we are representing. As far as ethical

behavior is considered, actions such as protecting the clients and being in their best interest,

being open and honest, cooperating with other real estate professionals, and refraining from

misrepresentation are integral (Cajias, Fuerst, McAllister, & Nanda, 2014). In this paper, I will

describe one of the decisions I have been involved putting into consideration the situational

factors and ethical framings that led to the final decision.

In owning and managing a brokerage of twenty-three agents and growing, I feel that it is

imperative that I set the expectation of ethical behavior and requisite moral standards up early in

the interview process. This insures that the agents joining my firm know who I am and what is

expected of them as they consider a potential offer of employment. First and foremost I expect

that the agents will be placing their respective clients needs above their own monetary reward or

other personal gain. I expect that they will fully disclose all know material facts relating to the

condition of the property and all other facts affecting the desirability and/or value of the

property. I expect that any agent working in my office will behave in a honest and trustworthy

fashion, and that they will support the open collaborative environment being fostered in my firm.

I am directly explicit with my agents, if these conditions are not tenable for them, this is not the

right office or cultural fit for them. Further, if there are found to have behaved in a manner that is

not consistent with these values they will be terminated on the spot.
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This said I have recently met with two agents who was looking to join my firm. These

two agents work as a father son team. The father has been in the business for a number of years

and the son has been in the business for four and half years. The father is getting ready to retire

and the son is taking the lead in their collective businesses. The son agent was a younger man

who has been working in the industry for the past few years. For being relatively new to the

industry he has done very well for himself. He closes on average thirteen transactions per year

for the past three years, which is statistically higher than most realtors nationally. Their two

practices, should I choose to hire them, would represent a good deal of company income and

local market share.

After the first meeting with these two gentlemen I let them talk. They were asking

questions about how my firm operated, what kind of services were provided, asking if there was

any kind of continued advanced skill building or accountability, and who were the lead office

administrative persons and what are their respective roles within the firm. After this meeting, I

was leaning toward hiring them. They appeared to represent themselves well, asked all the right

questions, and their monetary value to the company would be significant. At the second meeting,

I brought out my mission, vision, and values for the firm. I asked them about how they handled

their clients and offered scenarios for them to respond to. I asked how their current commission

structure functioned at their existing brokerage. After taking in all of their responses, it was very

clear; the good game they talked was not the game they practiced. They said that they worked

honorably and ethically, but when pressed about how their fee structure worked at their existing

brokerage, they said they would move the credit for sales back and forth between them to be paid

a higher commission, and what difference did it make their managing broker was none they
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wiser. The impression I was left with at the end of our second meeting was that they are in this

business to profit first and represent their clients second.

In this moment I was living Kahemans (2011) dichotomy of self. I was living in the

moment and my experiencing self was examining the potential for profit, market share, and

company growth. While my remembering self was churning away in the background. It was

whispering in my ears: why did you start this company? Is this company for everyone or only

those who meet your model? Is sacrificing your values today for a small monetary reward going

to provide the environment for future growth tomorrow? Once, I took a moment to step back and

center myself on these questions; the answer was simple and clear. These two men were not a fit

for my firm. When next we spoke, I told them both that there are a number of other offices that

are better suited for their business model and I wished them well.

Looking at this scenario, my decision was based on several issues including the

situational factors, ethical framing, and theological implication of situation. Making an ethical

decision can be quite challenging in everyday life, especially when there are many variables

involved (Ford & Richardson, 2013). However, ethics are what guide people in making right or

wrong decisions. In a broad sense, ethics is a set of standards for behaviors that guides people in

the way they ought to act in a given situation (Wilkens, 2011). In my situation, I knew that I had

to act a manner that was most consistent with the values that I had set forth as I formed my

company. As noted by Ford and Richardson (2013), ethics can be confused or conflated with

other ways of making choices such as law, religion, or morality. In as much as I wanted to act as

a moral person, honorable person, my decision was mainly based on my own code of ethics.

Lehnert, Park, and Singh (2014) argue that ethics has to do with acting ethical at all levels

including individual level, creating ethical organizations, and making the society ethical in the
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way it treats everyone. In this light I am glad that I was steadfast in my ethical ground. Looking

back, I firmly believe that had I chosen to hire these two men, I would have completely

undermined not only my own personal code of ethics but I believe that I would have completely

undermined my entire organization. Hiring these two salespeople would have caused some of my

existing salespeople to leave and I fear my have corrupted the practices of others.

The decision that I made in this case can be said to fall under the normative field of

ethics. As noted by Wilkens (2011), normative ethics is generally the study of ethical actions and

it deals with the principles and standards used to determine whether a decision is right or wrong.

It is based on the set of questions that arise when one is considering how to act. In my case, I had

several considerations with regard to my decision as a broker manager. Before making the final

decision, I evaluated the outcome of each action and made the decision that seemed to be most

morally correct. Additionally, this decision can be classified under the non-consequentialist

theories. These theories are generally concerned with the intentions of the individual making

ethical decision based on specific actions. Crisp (2015) notes that a non-consequentialist theory

judges whether an action is right or wrong based on the properties intrinsic to the action rather

than its consequences. In my case, I looked at all the aspects of the situation, my code of

conduct, the level of expertise, and the impact on my firm before making the decision.

The duty-based approach to ethics, also known as deontological ethics, is a non-

consequentialist theory is a normative ethical position that requires one to act ethical based on

the set rules. In essence, this approach was a deontological ethics approach based on Immanuel

Kants argument that doing what is right cannot be attached by the consequences of our actions.

Instead, it is about having the proper intention to perform the actual action (Wilkens, 2011). In

this regard, the ethical action comes from the duty or a person or because the person has an
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obligation to perform the act. In as much as I wanted to act in the most ethical manner and avoid

the potential lose of revenue and market share, I knew I had an obligation to act to the best

interests of the brokerage as a whole. Therefore, my decision was largely based on my duty as a

broker manager and not just the consequences of my action. It can be argued that the decision

was based on Kants basic form of categorical imperative used to discover ethical duty.

With regard to theological implication of personal decision-making, the action taken is

based on the moral content of the situation. In other words, the decision was made when the

action is directed towards the true good. Branson (2014) asserts that the actions of an individual

should promote the true good and favorable outcomes. Therefore, one should ensure that their

actions conform to objectives of normal morality such as the 10 commandments. In my

situations, I understood that it is important to always make morally right decision. It was clear

that these men were lying to their current employing broker. Then unabashedly, they told me

they were stealing from him, by manipulating how the credit for the sale was give so that they

would be able to obtain a higher split based on the transaction. The decision that I made was

based on the ethical code of conduct, and my intuition, rather than focusing on the benefits that I

as the broker manager would receive from their work or the benefits my company would receive

from their collective volume of production. I made a decision based on what I consider to be

what is right. In such a case, I took both the responsibility and accountability of my decision

without infringing the rights of any party. Branson (2014) supports this kind of judgment by

stating that one needs to reason by using their intellect to judge the morality of their actions. In

my case, I took time to think and analyze all factors involved before making the final decision.

By thinking it through, I was able to make a decision that was morally right and acceptable.
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In this final part of this paper, I will explore the alternative approaches that can be used to

future decision-making in similar situations. One of the possible approaches that I would have

taken in the situation is the utilitarian framework. In the utilitarian framework of decision

making one must consider how to generate the greatest happiness or benefit for the greatest

number of people (Wilkens, 2011, p. 96). In this instance, I do not believe that my decision

would have been changed. I believe that, if I would have adjusted my decision and hired these

two salespeople, they would have damaged the reputation of my company and caused a number

of disruptions within my firm. So, despite the framework change the decision would remain the

same. By electing to not offer these to men to join my firm, I preserved the happiness of the

group of agents that currently work in my office, I prevented the disruption of my office

administrative staff, and I preserved my moral and ethical codes. According to Crossan, Mazutis,

and Seijts (2013), the rights approach to ethical action stipulates that the best ethical decision is

the one that protects the ethical right of those affected by the action. In my case, the ones who

would be affected most by the action are my office staff and existing agents. Secondarily, the

overall company was affected by the opportunity cost of my decision.

To sum up this paper, ethics play a critical role in the day-to-day decisions and the

actions that people take. However, making an ethical decision requires one to be sensitive to the

ethical implication of the situation or the problems at hand. Therefore, having a framework for

ethical decision can be link between making the right or wrong in any case. Based on the

analysis that I have made in this paper, I can confidently state that my ethical framework allowed

me to make the right decision. Even after looking at alternative approaches that I could have

potentially used in this scenario, it is obvious to me that my decision was the right one to make
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on a number of levels and has been proven to be the correct approach utilizing a number of

different ethical frameworks and models.

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