Importance of Honesty in Real Estate Agents

Want to stand out in sales? Stop trying so hard to sell. A few weeks ago, a prospect slid into my LinkedIn DMs asking for a review of their insurance program. I welcomed the opportunity and sent over a clear list of data points so we could conduct a thorough assessment. Here’s the deal I always make with prospects: If your current program is solid, I’ll tell you. If there are gaps, I’ll tell you that too. Either way, you walk away with clarity and peace of mind. No games. No hidden agenda. Two weeks later, the results came in: their insurance program was in great shape. I flagged a few minor tweaks they could bring up with their current broker, but I told them there was no compelling reason to switch brokers if they were happy with the service. Their response? “I greatly appreciate your honesty and for not trying to fit a square peg into a round hole just to win my business. It’s refreshing to have someone offer a truly unbiased opinion. I would like to talk more about your service offerings.” This was a reminder of why I do business the way I do. Here’s what it taught me, again: Detach from the outcome. If you focus on doing what’s right for people, opportunities will chase you. Business owners are tired of being sold to. Stop pushing. Start helping. Let them buy when they’re ready. Honesty is still the best policy. It cuts through the noise and builds real trust. If you’re in sales, remember: Play the long game. Lead with value. Be the advisor, not the salesperson. It pays dividends.

If you’re selling clients a dream, then you’re setting yourself and them up for failure. Real estate is the opposite of an exact science, meaning no matter how hard you work and how much you prepare, things are going to go wrong. Stuff will break. Rent will be late. Long vacancies will happen. There will be bad tenants. If you sell your clients on the promise of a rosie picture where everything is great, easy, problem-free, and convenient, how will they react when the inevitable happens? It will make you look either naive, or like a liar. Instead, sell them on trust. Be upfront and honest that things will go wrong, but that’s why you’re here! The reason they’re hiring a PM is because you have the needed experience to solve those problems, so they don’t have to deal with them. When you do this, you earn trust 👉 because you’re telling the truth! And you’re setting an accurate expectation, which improves the owner experience, and ultimately decreases owner churn.

Reminder for Real Estate Agents: If you dodge the problems that clients experience in a transaction, then you’re a coward. You are lying because you’re afraid of confrontation, and those poorly set expectations by you will earn you a One Star Review &  ruined relationships. Here’s an example if you don’t understand what I am talking about. Agent Sam closes a listing to sell a 10 unit building for $3,000,000 for a new client and he is amped up. He tells the client that the experience will be seamless and that there will be no issues at all. Agent Sam never asks the client the right questions, and is clueless about all of the issues at the property (every property has issues). There are 2 tenants not paying rent, the roof is leaking, and the sewer lines have to be replaced. Agent Sam now goes into escrow with a buyer that makes a full price offer on the property. Sam doesn’t tell the buyer’s agent any pertinent information about the property prior to accepting the offer. The buyer does an inspection and realizes how beat up the property is. The buyer ends up asking for a $100,000 price reduction or he is going to cancel the deal. Agent Sam brings the price reduction request to the seller, and tells the seller that the transaction is going to cancel if the buyer doesn’t get his price reduction. The seller gets pissed off at Sam because Sam told him that everything was going to go smoothly with no issues during their time working together. The seller now thinks Sam lied to him, and does not trust Sam anymore. The seller chooses to cancel escrow and wants to cancel their listing agreement. The relationship is ruined. The seller ends up signing a new listing with a different company. Agent Sam cries himself to sleep. Here is how beginner agent Sam could have avoided these problems: 1. He should have been transparent and honest with the seller about what can go wrong when selling real estate. 2. He should have asked the seller about the current issues going on at the property. 3. He should have set the expectation with the seller that because of all the issues at the property, that any buyer is most likely going to try to negotiate with them and ask for credits. 4. Sam should have told the buyer’s agent about all the property issues upfront and told the buyer to make an offer based on him doing all these repairs himself because the seller refuses to. If Agent Sam did these four things, he would have had a much higher chance of completing a successful transaction. Let me know what I missed!

Lessons Learned: Knakal Knuggets #95: In order to be trusted, become trustworthy! One of my Knakal Knuggets states that “real estate market participants will talk to whom they know and like but will work with people they trust.” Also, it is so cliché to say that rather than being “Just a broker,” seek to become a “trusted advisor.” So, how do you become trustworthy? There are a number of things you can do: → Never bullshit anyone. Many years ago, our partner in Massey Knakal, Tim King, who ran our Brooklyn operation, was introducing me at an event at the Brooklyn Philharmonic where Paul Massey and I were getting recognized for our philanthropic work. In his intro, Tim said, “Bob is a guy who ‘means what he says and says what he means.’” That was one of the best compliments I could have gotten. Being truthful and transparent goes a long way towards achieving trust and becoming trustworthy. → Never miss a deadline. When you tell someone you will get them something by a certain day and time, make sure you deliver. If anything, get it there early. But never late. This would hurt credibility and people will doubt you will come through in the future on things you promise. → Don’t overpromise and underdeliver. This is related to the deadline perspective. If you say you are going to do something and deliver something, deliver more than you said you would, or, at the very least, exactly what you said you would. Never less. This is difficult to do, and time management becomes critical as you probably have many things to do, to deliver, and get many things to a variety of people at roughly the same time. Being organized and realistic about what you can do when is a key to being able to deliver. → Keep your to-do list up to date and look at it frequently. If you don’t want things to slip through the cracks, make sure you write things down and make sure you go into each day knowing what your top priorities are and have a plan to get those things done. → Lastly, if you don’t know, say so. So many mistakes are made by brokers who think they should know the answer to a question, so they answer it even though they don’t really know. It’s much better to say, “I am not sure. I will look into it and get back to you asap.” This approach also builds trust. If you truly want to reach “trusted advisor” status, become trustworthy. Following the steps outlined above will help get you there. #KnakalKnuggets #BKREA #NYCRealEstate

The #1 trust killer in sales? Pretending problems don’t exist. Here’s the truth: No deal is perfect and we face trade offs all the time. Your buyers know it. You know it. So why dance around it? Real example: I once had a condo listing right next to railroad tracks. Most agents would: ❌ Hope buyers don’t notice ❌ Minimize it when asked ❌ Let them “discover” it later What I did instead: ✅ Led with it in our first conversation ✅ Provided actual data (window sound ratings, train schedules) ✅ Explained MBTA vs commuter rail differences The result? The buyers told me their imagination was 10x worse than reality. By addressing it head-on, I turned a potential deal-breaker into a trust-builder. Your buyers’ worst-case scenarios are always scarier than the facts. Question for my network: What’s the toughest issue you’ve had to tackle head-on in a deal? How did transparency change the outcome? Drop your stories below 👇 Let’s normalize honest conversations in sales. #RealEstate #SalesTips #Transparency #BuyerExperience #TrustBuilding #Negotiation #SalesStrategy