Mr. Lazo,

Thank you for your well thought out article in the Times this morning, “Home Values Jump In January”.   As a 32 year veteran of the Southern California real estate market and I would like to offer a couple of observations regarding home values in today’s market.  Unfortunately, I believe the real estate market is extremely fragile and the recovery may be long and painful for home owners who have lost so much equity in this economic downturn.

First, as you probably are aware, we currently have a two tiered real estate market.

A conforming loan market where buyers obtain loans less than $729,751 and a jumbo loan market for loans above $729,750.

The jumbo home market price structure is still depreciating and will continue to do so until a secondary mortgage market becomes available to create a resource whereby lenders can sell the jumbo loans to third parties.

None of us see such a resource becoming available in the near future.  As a result the important “move up” real estate market is for all intents and purposes, moribund.

The conforming market continues to show strength and has probably bottomed out in terms of price depreciation for the time being.  However, an increase in interest rates, combined with harsher qualifying guidelines, and a rush of foreclosures could cause this situation to reverse itself as you correctly mention in your article.

Second, the real estate market is not immune to classic financial market behaviors.  The government has been successful in supporting the current situation through a number of incentives that you mentioned.  However, it is important to consider the entire home market as a singular unit.

Ecosystem

Each segment of the market is dependent upon the other in an ecosystem of sorts.  And just like any ecosystem, the failure of any market segment will have negative consequences for the other segments.

In other words, for the low end home market in Southern California to become permanently stable, the upper end market (where buyers depend upon jumbo mortgages) must also become healthy.

I would point out that the real estate market in our country is responsible for over 20%  of the national GDP.  Given the importance of the real estate market in the overall economy, I am surprised at the lack of understanding on the part of our leadership in Washington.

The focus for stimulating housing has and continues to be only on the low end conforming segment.

This continued myopia by leadership will result in extending the delay of a full recovery in housing and will hold back the overall economy as well.

Thanks for reading my email.  I hope to see articles in future that draw attention to the two tiered market and the importance of addressing issues related to each market segment.  After all, those who purchase conforming loan properties tend to be tradespeople and small business owners/workers.

When a real estate transaction is successfully completed, more than 25 individual vendors receive work.  This tends to be an even higher number of vendors when a high end property finally closes escrow.  At the end of the day, full employment is the key to overall financial stability.

LA Times: Home Sales Jump In January

Imagine a room full of people, and in that room there is a Victim and a Rescuer.  The two will find one another and hook up.

By Roger Ewing

Aniston and Schwimmer of TV's "Friends"

Drama is not inherently “bad”.  Drama is very entertaining; it’s just not a good means of managing ones life.  Here is a summary of what we have discovered about drama so far.

1.  At any given time, 60% of the adult population is involved in drama.

2.  Drama is both seductive and addictive.

3.  Drama does not get anyone what they want.

4.  The primary drama roles are Victim, Rescuer and Persecutor.

5.  The pivotal role in any drama is the Victim.

6.  Victims believe they have no options.

7.  Victims use specific limiting language that easily identifies them.

8.  Rescuing is all about the Rescuer, not the Victim,

9.  Persecutors empower Victims.

10.  Victims don’t really want to be rescued.

The relationship between each of our drama roles can be described as an inverted triangle, where the Victim takes the primary position of control.

Remember, while the roles in a silent movie are well defined, in real life drama the role of Victim, Rescuer and Persecutor are assigned by the other players in the drama.  Role reversal is a common occurrence and is important for the drama to gain traction.

If Victims don’t really want to be rescued, what do they want?

Victim’s involved in drama only want one thing from a Rescuer, support.  That’s it.  Simple, don’t over complicate the situation.  If you are involved in a drama situation you want to remove yourself from the triangle.

All Victims truly want is support.  Offer support, not solutions.

Here is a quality response to a drama Victim who is desperately seeking a Rescuer.  “I am here to help you in any way I can, tell me how to do that?”  Remember, Victims don’t view themselves as having options.  Therefore, Victims are incapable of making decisions.

By forcing a Victim to make a decision you are actively interfering with the drama process.

Victims will fight to stay engaged in the drama.  Regardless of how much the Victim may beg you, do not offer solutions.  Victims will make decisions if forced to do so and this is the only way you can achieve an effective solution to a dramatic situation.

Drama is an inherently immature response to life problems.  One of the best ways to view real life drama is to watch the behavior of young teenagers around the age of 13 or 14 years.  Their social interactions involve a lot of drama, “she said”, “he said”, “they said” is a typical conversation.  They live in drama nearly 100% of the time.  It’s almost as if the onset of puberty activates some sort of drama gene.

Mature adults, on the other hand, are interested in discovering how they can create and achieve goals, realize their dreams, and effectively manage their business and personal relationships.  This is mature thinking and is the basis for achieving self actualization.

It should come as no surprise that drama can be described by a very simple formula.

By Roger Ewing

Hollywood has known this formula for years.  One of the easiest means of observing drama is to see an old silent movie.

Here is a classic example of the roles involved in drama in the days of the silent movie.  The cast of characters includes our hero, a Canadian Mounty by the name of Dudley.  There is always a pretty girl who is desperately trying to save Grandma’s farm from foreclosure.  And of course, an evil villain named Snidely who wants to cheat Grandma out of the family farm.

The story follows the drama formula.  After a lot of dramatic activity, Snidely captures the pretty girl and ties her to the railroad tracks.  Dudley arrives at the last possible moment and defeats Snidely, saving Grandma’s farm and winning the pretty girl.  All is well in the end.

The silent movie is clearly an over simplification of real life drama.  However, it serves our purposes when analyzing the dysfunctional relationships we sometimes find ourselves in.  Here is a summary of the roles we encountered in our silent movie.

The Victim

Without a victim there can be no drama.

Therefore, victims are the most pivotal role in any drama.  It’s easy to spot Victims; they tend to use very specific language to describe their condition.  They often use limiting words, such as “always”, “forever”, “never”, “can’t”, “won’t”, “should”, “shouldn’t” and “couldn’t” among others.

Victims typically do not describe their situation as a problem, but rather refer to themselves as being in “trouble”.  Having a problem, implies there may be a solution.  Being in trouble, on the other hand, is a condition with no apparent solution.  Which leads us to our most important Victim quality and explains why Victims are rarely capable of making mature decisions.

Victims believe they have no options.

The Rescuer

The role of Rescuer is the most sought after role in drama.  This is because rescuers are individuals who get their feelings of positive self-esteem by attempting to rescue Victims. While this may seem very altruistic, the fact is it is a selfish role built on the Rescuer’s personal feelings of low self-esteem.  Rescuers feel great when they are doing what they do best,  rescuing.

Rescuing is all about the Rescuer, not the Victim.

The Persecutor

Very few people actively strive to be villains.  The Rescuer and the Victim usually assign this role to another party in the drama.  In fact, the Persecutor is a liquid role that flows freely among the drama players.

All of the roles in drama change and morph as each participant applies drama labels to each of the other players.  At any given time the Rescuer may feel like the Victim, the Victim may feel they are the Rescuer, and the Persecutor will take one position or the other.

All of this confusion creates an environment where positive accomplishments are not easily achieved.  Once we understand that Victims don’t really want to be rescued and that they need a Persecutor to validate their drama, the irony becomes clear.

The Persecutor empowers the Victim in drama.

Why does drama behavior continue when it clearly produces no desired results for the players? The answer lies in the fact that Victims and Rescuers are quite good at what they do.  Career Victims are very accomplished at their role. They really do want a Rescuer to attempt to rescue them and Rescuers really need a Victim to practice their rescuing skills on.  They are co-dependent upon one another and each gets satisfaction from the rescuing activity.  This explains why people stay in dysfunctional and damaging relationships.

The mystery is this.  How do we obtain positive results in our lives if others, who insist on living in drama, surround us and create an environment where little productivity occurs?  The answer is.

Don’t Attempt To Emotionally Rescue A Victim

An ancillary question might be, if I try really hard to rescue a Victim, won’t I realize a positive result?  One would like to think so.  However, the result of being a powerful Rescuer is the real possibility the Victim will turn on you and slap you with the Persecutor label.  Ever heard these words before?  “All I was trying to do was help and looked what they did to me.”

In Part 3 of this series, I will describe the best technique for interacting with others engaged in drama.  There is a creative way to defuse the drama triangle and actually bring about positive, mature, results in our business and personal relationships.

At any given time, as much as 60% of the adult population is involved in drama.

By Roger Ewing

When those around us act out in ways that are overly dramatic, the end result may very well be a problem in our business or our personal life.  By managing the potential for drama in our lives, we can bring dissatisfied parties to common ground, and constructive results to our business and personal relationships.

Drama is seductive and addictive.

Psychologists tell us that at any given time, as much as 60% of the adult population is involved in some dramatic situation. Garden-variety drama can be compelling and for those of us who naturally lean toward the dramatic, it can also be consuming.

In the past, the classic example of drama’s popularity was the success of televised soap operas.  But this source of traditional drama is now being eclipsed by real life drama played out on social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter and cellphone texting.

We all experience drama at some time or another.  Drama could involve a serious life challenge,  or it may be a simple chain of events gone wrong that leads us toward feelings of despair. Causing us to ask ourselves, why me?  Recently, I experienced a simple morning drama that demonstrates what I mean.

I was headed for an important morning meeting and had difficulty finding the correct tie, shirt, jacket combination.  Once dressed, I headed for the kitchen and found I was out of coffee.  Feelings of frustration were building already and I hadn’t even left the house.

I stopped for coffee at Starbucks and, while getting back into my car, I spilled the coffee on my shirt and tie.  I head back home, more than frustrated.  Changed my clothes, with the usual decision difficulties, and got back into my car.

Entourage's Johnny Drama

Low on gas, I had to stop, and realizing I was late, I cranked up the fan on the air conditioning and made an incomplete stop at the corner.  You guessed it, ticket time.  Do I really have to go on?

My normal morning routine had been disrupted.  I was late for my meeting and speaking to a police officer about my driving habits.  How did I feel at this moment?  I felt I was a victim of some sort of bad karma experience.  Life was being seriously unfair to me.

Drama never gets anyone what they want.

The most important defense against dramatic situations is to actually identify that we are involved in a drama situation.  Sounds quite simple, unless you are the one that is struggling with the lousy cards life has dealt you at that particular moment.  Take a deep breath and observe the drama that is unfolding about you.  Recognize you have a role in your personal drama and understand that it is an immature feeling.  Snap yourself back to objective adult thinking.

We all know people who seem to live in drama nearly 24-7.  These people are constantly involved in emotionally charged situations.  When you take a close look, you begin to recognize this dramatic person is emotionally immature.  It is very difficult to achieve success and experience self realization while living in a constant state of drama.

Not that drama is a bad thing.  You just don’t want it to determine the course of your life. So, if you feel the need to escape reality and allow your inner child to play, go to the movies or log onto Facebook and soak in some entertainment.  Meanwhile, don’t allow drama to determine your role in life.

In part two of this three part series, I will describe the roles we play in drama and explain how each person, Victim, Persecutor and Rescuer participate to make sure the drama is a frothy and unproductive experience for everyone involved.

The Title Of A book by John Gierach

By Roger Ewing

Part sport and part art, with a little Zen wisdom thrown in, fly- fishing imitates life, and is a good allegory for business.  In his well-read book, Sex Death and Fly Fishing, Gierach shares insights on mayflies, men, fishing, love, and the meaning, or lack thereof, of life.

When I visit Rick’s Sporting Goods in Mammoth Lakes, I am in awe of the quantity and variety of gear that is available to satisfy my fishing addiction.  Everything I crave is here.  I see a staggering array of colorful flys with names that a nail polish marketer would envy.  There are floating lines, sinking and tapered lines, weighted tippet, forceps, waders, float tubes, knot tying tools, and beautifully crafted willowy fly rods.  This, I think to myself, must be heaven.

The businessman in me makes the B2B connection to fly-fishing.  I have determined there are three important similarities between fly-fishing and marketing that the careful fly fisherman and the enterprising marketer should consider.

Choosing The Correct Fly

Fly fishermen never refer to the fly, a small bit of steal, feathers and thread, as bait.  This would be a sacrilege.  Likewise, in business it’s best to avoid the temptation to offer “bait and switch” strategies.  Success in business, as in fishing, requires that we be real, genuine and always truthful.

Marketing efforts are best described as initiatives.  We research our target market and manage our product to ensure that we have created a strategy that will likely succeed.  When fishing, I like to nymph the stream.  Using a small net to collect insects at various levels of the stream, I match the insects I find with a fly from my fly box, dramatically increasing my chances of success.

In business as in fly-fishing, the correct product for the correct audience is a sure fire recipe for success.

Presentation

Fly-fishing appeals to me because it is esoteric and provides a level of intellectual stimulation that I find very satisfying.  Trout on the other hand are much more pragmatic.  They are attracted to my fly because it is mealtime in the stream.  It’s a sort of dance.
The perfect cast will present my fly in such a manner that it will not occur to the trout that this is not a swimming Callibaetis, or a floating Caddis about to dry it’s wings and lift off the surface of the water.

Similarly, marketing pieces must be compelling, memorable and eye-catching.  Will my message be framed in the correct context and arrive at just the right moment to cause the client to react in the desired frame of mind?

For example, my goal is to deliver direct mail that has a valuable and worthy message.  I want my print ads to resonate with the reader and cause them to think about themselves in a way that is in concert with their lives and my product.  I have found that basic human needs and desires are the best means of getting a buyers attention.  The more exciting the better.  Sex, as Madison Avenue reminds us, sells.

Fly Line Management

Once the trout has taken the fly, the way I manage the fly line becomes very important.  All the gear, preparation and careful planning in the world will not result in landing a beautiful trout unless I keep my wits about me.  The line must not have too much slack, but it must not be too taut either.  I literally fish with my hands, feeling the trout’s energy in the rod and the line.

I’m careful not to tire the trout to exhaustion. It is important to me that I keep this trout alive in the stream to help maintain the precious fish population. A barb-less hook, a gentle net and underwater handling will ensure the fish swims away healthy.  For me, releasing the trout is the most exhilarating part of the fly fishing experience.

In the world of business the analogy of fly line management is obvious.  Managing the client relationship is the most critical aspect of ensuring that our clients provide us with quality referrals and then return to us for service in the years to come.

There is a fine line between appearing to be a stalker in a business relationship and actually being available when we are really needed. Staying in touch, and keeping our clients informed will make our clients feel valued and make us look professional. Accurate, quality information is important to our clients, and to us, if we want to make sure the net is filled at the end of the business day.

Summary

Creating a mutually positive end result for both parties is the active goal of any fly fisherman or entrepreneur.  Whether you are finalizing a winning marketing strategy or wading in a trout stream, remember these simple rules.  Choose the right fly, make the best presentation and manage your fly line well.

The Zen part?  We’ll leave that to John Gierach and the trout.

Congressman Howard Berman

By Roger Ewing

This past week, my business partner Ernie Wish and I had the pleasure of meeting with Congressman Howard Berman of the 28th Congressional District in California.  The goal of our meeting was to explain to the Congressman what reality looks like from ground zero in Southern California’s residential real estate industry.  Specifically, what are the challenges and what work needs to be done to move the economy forward?

There are several issues that are preventing the real estate market from making a full recovery that Ernie and I hoped to communicate to the Congressman.

First, the home sales market is a continuum that cannot be segmented when creating policy.  While it may be politically correct to offer financial support to first time and low value homebuyers, one cannot ignore the high-end market.  These two market segments operate in concert with one another.  Without a healthy “move up” market, that includes the upper price points, all market price segments will struggle and grind to a halt.

Second, the real estate market is hypersensitive to negative changes in employment.  Individuals who feel secure in their jobs, and have an expectation of doing better in the near term, will buy homes.  When a home is offered for sale an explosion of spending often follows.  Sellers and buyers invest in their homes both before and after the sale occurs.  This healthy spending results in jobs, which in turn results in economic growth.  As a result of this phenomenon, the residential real estate market is responsible for 10% of the Gross Domestic Product.

Third, the home buying market in Southern California, while enjoying more transactions this year than in 2008, is not as healthy as current press releases may lead us to believe.  Nearly half of all reported sales are either REO or short sale transactions.  Most of these sales are occurring in a low price environment created by the recession, and many of these buyers are investors who are offering cash for homes while freezing out families searching for shelter.    The result is that only about half of the transactions occurring today are the result of individuals and families searching for a home to live in.

Fourth, the federal government needs to do more to help create a secondary market for “jumbo loans”.  Loans over the $729,750 conforming limit are very difficult to obtain.  Would be home buyers in the price segment of $1 million to $2.5 million are struggling to obtain financing, even though interest rates are at or near historic lows.

Jumbo loans in excess of $729,750 are critical to creating and sustaining a healthy move up home market.  Under current restrictive lending standards, the market is held captive beneath a glass ceiling that is preventing discretionary, well-qualified homebuyers from selling their existing home and purchasing another.  We effectively have a “bottle-neck” that is hampering the real estate recovery in all price segments.

Summary:
We found Congressman Berman to be engaging, animated and inquisitive.  He is very concerned about the state of the real estate industry and the unemployment problem facing California.  After 26 years as a United States Congressman, he is keenly aware of the difficulties associated with creating policy change in Washington, and clearly understands how to navigate the political hierarchy.  I believe he was genuinely interested in learning about real estate in his district, as evidenced by the fact that he originally committed 30 minutes to our meeting, but then spent well over an hour with us.

With a vibrant, active home market, all of us are winners.  Business thrives, investment increases, tax bases increase and the federal government will spend less on financial bailouts in all sectors of the economy.

In future blogs I will explore in more detail how the financial system works in conjunction with home sales and why real estate is a critical ingredient in preventing our fledgling economic recovery from stalling.

By Roger Ewing

True story.  A large corporate sales organization launches a regional print media magazine in southern California.  The initiative in itself is not unusual.  What happened next however is very insightful for all of us who recognize the blossoming power of social media and the consequences, both positive and negative that can result from a corporations voyage into digital marketing.

The corporation launches it’s new magazine to great fanfare and announces the primary distribution point will be to include the piece in local newspapers in their target regional market.  The magazine will be “stuffed” into the newspaper each weekend and will replace the traditional newspaper advertising that has characterized their corporate advertising model for many years.

As part of their launch they include online support via web site, Facebook and Twitter.  The strategy is clearly well planned, executed, and the printed piece is generally well received by the sales force and the public.  This is the point where the corporation failed to recognize the potential for problems.  The corporate marketing peeps did not anticipate the opportunity for uninvited competitors to crash their ‘friendly” social media party.

I am a competitor and, as the leader of my company, one of my jobs is to discredit any new initiative my competition creates. This is part and parcel of what we do every day in business.  I create new initiatives for my business, while at the same time, ethically devaluing my competitor’s strategies.  Once Facebook and Twitter were launched in support of the corporation’s new initiative, I saw an opportunity to reveal the weaknesses of the new magazine to a large number of individuals, both inside and outside my competitor’s organization.  The beauty of it is, they welcomed me in.

The open forum of Facebook and Twitter gives individuals and small business owners communicative power they never had in the days of print and television.  I simply made my competitor my “friend” on Facebook and then let the fun begin.  Following are three major mistakes the corporation made in their launch strategy.

Mistake 1.  The corporation proceeded to post, or should I say spam, my Facebook pages with ads for their new magazine. These “ads” were being posted three, sometimes four, times a day.  Since I did not want to be a partner in the corporate ad campaign, I was faced with a dilemma.  Remove the corporation from my Facebook and Twitter pages, or write a comment.  After weighing the options, I chose the latter.

Mistake 2.  The corporation never anticipated negative feedback appearing in their social media space.  As a result, they were slow to react to my postings that pointed out the inherent weaknesses of their new magazine.

Mistake 3. The corporation whined about my comments placed on their Facebook and Twitter posts.  This only created drama, which in turn gave me more power.  The individual versus the corporation.  The classic struggle of good (me) versus evil (them).

Ultimately, of course, they removed me from their Facebook page and blocked me from Twitter, but not until I had time to post numerous responses to their advertising posts.  The corporation was caught flat footed and had played into the unfolding drama by breaking the primary rules of social media blogging.

Never hard sell your product, and whatever you do, don’t allow your posts to morph into spam.

There are powerful lessons we can all take away from this true story.
To be continued…

Property presented by Ewing & Associates Sotheby’s International Realty, property ID #4165935. Tel: 818.222.9500

NAVIGATING THE WORLD OF SOCIAL MEDIA

(Wall Street Journal On-Line Article)

Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, flickr and YouTube are the new buzzwords in the online marketing world of social media. Whether you are buying or selling real estate, it is critical that you understand the important role social media has come to play in today’s market.

Social media has been described as a convergence point where public relations, marketing and advertising meet on the World Wide Web. The basic list of social media Web sites starts with Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, LinkedIn and others. They work by enabling users to create and maintain their own personal profiles.

A real estate professional well-versed in the social media space knows how to use these mediums to create a consistent, fresh image for themselves that helps develop strong industry relationships. They know how to assess their own strengths to create an online presence that is both authentic and transparent. Creating a compelling profile for themselves using social media is an important first step in marketing your home to other high profile agents on the Web.

Each social networking Web site is unique and has its own audience. Scott Monty, head of Social Media at Ford Motor Company says, “LinkedIn is the business meeting, Facebook is the hallway conversation and Twitter is the cocktail party.” A technological real estate professional is familiar with all these Web sites and understands the subtlety of the digital communications that occur there. After all is said and done, your buyer is probably someone who knows someone, who knows your agent.

For example, our company, Ewing & Associates Sotheby’s International Realty in California, recently had a listing on a home owned by an entertainment executive. We produced a YouTube video of the property and e-mailed the link to the owner. He was so excited about the video, he posted the link to his Facebook site. From there the video of his home was viewed by his Facebook “friends” and distributed by them to various other sites and venues on the Web. This is a great example of “viral marketing” where a marketing piece behaves much like a pebble tossed into a still pond.

Finally, an important question to ask your real estate professional is what networking sites are they active on. For example, Active Rain is a Web site where they can blog about the industry. Despite the multimedia world we live in, at the end of the day relationships are what matter most. The savvy techno-agent spends their time and resources on sites where they know the most productive agents and motivated buyers may be found. Recently we were successful in obtaining an offer to purchase from a buyer who was referred by an agent from out of the area, who learned of our listing through an e-correspondence flyer sent to them as the result of a blog entry on a well-traveled agent site.

Social networking is the wave of the future. Those that can find success in this space are true technological players in today’s marketing world. They are the agents that will be selling tomorrow’s homes.

More thoughts on using social networking to market real estate from the Sotheby’s International Realty® network:

“One of the most effective things we do is to have our agents become friends on Facebook with those people who have always been on their direct mail databases. When the agent has a sale, we upload a photo of the home and ‘tag’ the agent who sold the listing, along with information on the home. Tagging the photo instantly informs the agent’s friends/database that they are busy and successful. Not only is this an affordable way to market to their sphere of influence, it is environmentally acceptable and it is fairly subtle.”
— David Boehmig, President, Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby’s International Realty, Georgia

“Social networking is an important part of our online marketing program. We want to meet the consumer where they are getting their information, which is largely on the Internet. Social networking is highly-targeted and, if done properly, more effective because it is more personal.”
— Jenny Pruitt, CEO, Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby’s International Realty, Georgia

“Social media has provided an exciting new forum for conducting business and I am thrilled that we as a company are whole-heartedly embracing these emerging opportunities to better connect with our clients and further separate ourselves from our colleagues,” says Erika Paul, President and Broker-Owner of Hallmark Sotheby’s International Realty in Hopkinton, MA. “We consider ourselves pioneers in leveraging technology to advance our business initiatives, and social media is just the newest tool in our arsenal. We use forums like Twitter and Facebook to recruit and promote some of the brightest technology-focused Realtors in our market. We have set-up our own YouTube channel to showcase our growing catalog of property videos. Our office Flickr photostream helps instantly publish our inventory of listing photography to a global audience.”
— Erika K. Paul, President, Broker-Owner, Hallmark Sotheby’s International Realty, Massachusetts

Paul’s company and their social media efforts were recently highlighted in best-selling author David Meerman Scott’s newest book, World Wide Rave. “Real Estate will always be a ‘people’ business and we see social media as a fantastic vehicle to better connect with our clients and associates,” says Paul. “There has been a noticeable dramatic shift in the way people research, buy and sell real estate and we are extremely proud of our social media efforts to better connect, share and discover with our community. It’s such an exciting time to be in this business!”

By Roger Ewing

On any given day, we might hear about a neighbor, colleague, or business acquaintance that stumbled off the path to success and prosperity. It may have even happened to someone we care deeply for. I’ve been saddened to learn of people in my circle who’ve had their stability uprooted by a series of poor ethical decisions.  Typically, their problems stem from poor decisions made several steps back, before the roof actually caved in.

I keep a visual reminder in my office that ethics isn’t just an academic subject to be discussed in intellectual terms.  My grandfather’s construction level, complete with broken glass, dried concrete and his own pencil marks sits atop my bookcase.  It serves as a constant reminder to me to do the right thing and to stay on level ground.  Each time I see his level, I think of my grandfather and ask myself if he would be respect my decisions and the way I live my life.

In truth, the subject of ethics has its essence in the discipline of practical every day decision-making.

Its chief concern is with values and establishing guidelines that prescribe how we as individuals interact with each other, or at least how we ought to interact with each other.

The ways we interact with our fellow human beings determines the level of trust, honor and integrity by which we live. Each of these virtues, of course, links directly to our ability to lead prosperous, happy and fulfilling lives. When we forget about ethics, or disregard the relevance of ethical behavior, we lessen our ability to reach our highest potential.

To paraphrase Gandhi, “we reach our highest human potential, or achieve happiness, when we keep in harmony everything we say, everything we think, and everything we do”.

As the owner of a real estate company catering to Southern California communities, I’ve found a useful process to keep everything I say, think and do in harmony:  I make value-based decisions.  That may sound like a trite expression, but truly, it’s a system I go through to ensure all my decisions stay on the high road.

First, when making decisions I evaluate whether they show personal honesty and integrity, consistent with what I represent to our clients and my colleagues at Sotheby’s International Realty.

Second, I consider whether my decisions show respect to others, treating them, with dignity and demonstrating my efforts to create win-win solutions.

Third, I encourage my real estate agents to contemplate whether their decisions are responsive to client needs, are consistent with client expectations, and deliver on their commitments. While at the same time utilizing using all resources at their disposal to facilitate a successful transaction.

As the managing partner at Ewing and Associated Sotheby’s International Realty, I welcome the opportunity to ensure all our agents; management and staff follow an ethical code, which is consistent with the obligations we owe our clients, our profession, our community, our family and ourselves. This approach in business keeps us grounded, focused, and on a clear and direct path to success.  Concepts that I know would make my grandfather proud.

Thank you to my good friend Justin Paperny for his assistance in this post.

Copyright © by Roger Patrick Ewing, all rights reserved.