Why Honesty Is the Most Valuable Investment You Can Make in Real Estate

Every week I get emails, messages, and calls from people who want to work together in some capacity. Novices to veterans. All types.

The number one problem I run into every single time is dishonesty.

Not malicious lying necessarily. More like people selling me on who they want to be instead of who they actually are. They tell me what they think I want to hear. They say "no problem" to things they can't do, won't do, or have no idea how to do. And it comes out eventually. It always does.

Why lie? Trades do it constantly, claiming expertise they don't have. Investors do it just as often, presenting hopes and dreams as facts on the table. I've sat across from people whose entire pitch was a vision of what they intended to become rather than an honest accounting of what they currently bring.

I genuinely love honesty even when I don't like what the person is saying. Tell me you're broke. Tell me you're new. Tell me you've never closed a deal. That's fine. I can work with that. I can't work with a version of you that doesn't exist.

I learned a long time ago that if you're going to sell yourself as something it's better to under promise and over deliver. Not to promise the world when you don't have a blade of grass to show for it.

Honor and integrity are the most undervalued investments in any business. They cost nothing upfront and pay back more than anything else over time. Your reputation is the only thing that follows you from deal to deal, from relationship to relationship, from the beginning of your career to wherever you end up.

Invest in that first. Everything else is easier after.

If you operate with honesty and want to work with someone who does the same, let's talk.

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