THE COST OF LOOSE LIPS

Once upon a time, an in-house broker sold a pre-selling condo unit to a walk-in buyer he met while manning a booth. The buyer was easy to talk to, and the transaction closed smoothly after a few weeks.

Months later, the broker encountered someone with the same uncommon last name as his client. Curious, he asked if they were related. To his surprise, she turned out to be the client’s daughter. “What a small world,” he thought.

A few days later, the buyer stormed into the broker’s office, shouting at anyone in sight and demanding to see the broker and his boss. Enraged, the buyer accused them of breaching his confidentiality. He berated them for over an hour, threatening to sue the company.

When the buyer finally left, the boss called the broker in for an explanation. The broker admitted he’d mentioned to the daughter that her father had purchased a condo, thinking it was harmless since they were family. “How could that be wrong?” he asked.

But the boss was firm. To avoid legal trouble and appease the furious buyer, the broker was fired for breaching client confidentiality.

When the unit was eventually turned over, a different person—young and unrelated—accepted the property. It turned out the buyer had placed the condo under a corporation to protect the identity of its real user.

Lesson Learned

Never disclose information about your clients or their transactions—no matter how trivial it may seem. Confidentiality is non-negotiable in real estate.