Ethics in Real Estate Essay

Introduction

The complexity of the human relations in the society is characterized by the variety of rules and norms that people have to follow for their activities to be socially acceptable. Ethics serves as the set of such norms and regulates the relations between people, organizations, and between people and organizations. Needless to say, ethics is important not only in daily lives of human beings, but in any other spheres of activity including business. Real estate as a specially complicated business area also has its ethical norms. However, often business activities in real estate are carried out ignoring the basic ethical concepts. The book by Sam Foster titled Alpha Male: A tale of the battle of Commerce and the movie Glengarry Glen Ross by James Folley illustrate the situations when ethical norms are violated in real estate business.

Alpha Male: A tale of the battle of Commerce

Book Background

The book by Sam Foster, Alpha Male: A tale of the battle of Commerce, is perceived by numerous critics as the most skillful and literary reflection on the complex and often deceptive world of real estate in Los Angeles (Foster, 2002). The plot of the book focuses on the struggle of ethics and its absence, morality and readiness for everything for reaching one’s goals. Depicting the victory of ethics over immorality, Sam Foster manages to express his idea of the possibility that the real estate business, and the human life on the whole, can be ethical in their essence. The struggle of Jack Kendrick and Liz Peterson embodies the eternal fight between ethics and immorality in the human society (Foster, 2002).

Major Characters

The major characters of Alpha Male: A tale of the battle of Commerce by Sam Foster are Jack Kendrick, Liz Peterson, Lorna, Jack’s wife, and Ian, Jack’s son (Foster, 2002, p. 13). The whole plot of the book reveals the struggle carried out by Jack for introducing ethics and morality to real estate business (Foster, 2002, p. 16). Jack Kendrick is a former salesman in a huge Los Angeles company, who was fired because of his reluctance to take part in the illegal real estate transactions. He becomes employed by another real estate dealing company but faces absence of ethics again and considers the need to fight for his vision of real estate business and principles of human coexistence (Foster, 2002, p. 17).

Liz Peterson is another main character, and the major antagonist, of the book by Sam Foster (Foster, 2002, p. 14). Miss Peterson is a woman that values her work in real estate business and is ready for achieving her goals in it by all means necessary. Liz Peterson is supposed to be Jack’s subordinate in the real estate company but their conflict soon develops beyond the scope of the company (Foster, 2002, pp. 14 – 16).

In this conflict, Jack’s family, i. e. his wife Lorna and son Ian help him go through the situation. Lorna is considerably supportive of Jack and her advice help Jack stay on the ethical path of dealing with Liz Peterson and her illegal activities (Foster, 2002, p. 28). Ian, although a small kid yet, also plays an important role in the book as he is the person to who Kack is set to transfer his living values and beliefs. So, to stay true to his son Jack is firm in his opinion to establish ethics in the real estate company and dismantle Liz Peterson’s illegal and unethical activities (Foster, 2002, p. 37).

There are also minor characters that complete the picture drawn by Sam Foster and allow the reader trace the development of ethical principles in the minds of ordinary Los Angeles real estate agents (Foster, 2002, p. 7). One of these minor characters is the male real estate agency worker that committed suicide after Liz’s pressure, and another one is the female subordinate of Liz who is also under pressure at the time when Jack comes to the company (Foster, 2002, p. 13). The whole complexity of relations between these characters creates the full picture of the lack of ethics in the real estate business in Los Angeles as pictured by Sam Foster (2002, p. 6). Both real estate and pure human ethics become involved in these relations.

Real Estate Ethics

Thus, the relations between the above listed characters of Alpha Male: A tale of the battle of Commerce by Sam Foster are all about ethics, or its absence, in work and in daily life, in communication with business partners, clients, and family members. However, real estate ethics is the primary focus of this book. The best way to consider it is to exemplify ethical concepts and problems by the actions and attitudes of Foster’s character while confronted by the need to make ethical decisions or commit ethical deeds. Thus, the first ethical dilemma that Foster presents is the choice that Jack Kendrick has to make while deciding whether to stay in his previous company and be involved into illegal activities or refuse and be fired (Foster, 2002, p. 19).

This situation has two implications. First, it reflects the lack of ethics that, according to Foster (2002, p. 197), characterizes the real estate business. Although officially the real estate transactions should be conducted legally and with proper attention paid to the rights and duties of parties concerned, Jack’s former employers did not stop before illegal and unethical activities for the benefit of their company (Foster, 2002, p. 12). The second implication is that it is possible to stay ethical in the industry that is unethical as such, and Foster uses Jack’s example to illustrate this point.

Jack has to face the next issue concerning the real estate ethics as soon as he understands the working practices of his subordinate Liz Peterson. At first, Jack perceives Liz as a rather committed worker, but then realizes that Miss Peterson will not stop before any means of achieving her business goals (Foster, 2002, p. 46). On coming to know that sex and bribery are often used by Liz in her work to get the best deals, Jack inquires about her work deeper and finds out another ethical dilemma to deal with. Liz made one of her new male subordinates have a homosexual intercourse with the real estate buyer to conclude the deal, and this affair resulted in that subordinate’s suicide (Foster, 2002, p. 63). The professional and purely human ethics does not allow Jack to ignore the fact and he investigates the tragedy to find out that Liz Peterson was the one to blame, but not the one to feel remorse or guilt for the death of her co-worker (Foster, 2002, p. 75).

In this situation, real estate ethics becomes closely intertwined with the human ethics as apart from violating the business rules and the norms of fair competition, Liz’s deed led to another person’s suicide. Accordingly, this ethical problem illustrates the inherent differences observed among human beings, some of whom understand the limit of their power, while others are not stopped by other people’s dying because of their activities. Moreover, feeling no guilt for a person’s death, Liz was on her way to another deal making her female subordinate have sexual intercourse with another client in the real estate transaction. Being on the merge of ethics and immorality, Jack faced the choice once again according to which he either could adopt Liz’s practices and allegedly earn considerable money or investigate Liz’s activities, report them in public, and establish the supremacy of ethics in real estate.

The making of ethical choice that Jack Kendrick finally takes up is to the great extent conditioned by the support of his wife Lorna and son Ian. Realizing his being a role model of proper behavior for Lorna and especially for Ian, and following his internal commitment to fair real estate business, Jack does not doubt what side to take in the ethical controversy. Thus, considering all the real estate ethics problems as described by Sam Foster (2002), it is possible to understand that the world of real estate business is far from being ethical and playing according to the rules. People in this world are often considered to be only means of achieving someone else’s goals and their lives are valued lower than million dollar transactions.

Glengarry Glen Ross

Background

The point that makes the movie Glengarry Glen Ross by James Folley related to the above examined real estate ethical problem in Alpha Male: A tale of the battle of Commerce is the movie’s appeal to the same topic, i. e. absence of actual ethics, both human and real estate ethics, in the situations when money and power are at stake. Although having the different plot and character set, Glengarry Glen Ross can be of great value for understanding the real estate ethical principles and the actual situation with their development in the real estate business (Glengarry Glen Ross, 1992). The set of five major characters allows consideration of the topic of real estate ethics in the context of the social disintegration and culture that teaches people to resort to all means necessary, irrespective of their being ethical, for the purpose of achieving success.

Major Characters

The five major characters mentioned above are the real estate agents and an office manager employed by the company, whose leaders Mitch and Murray, are never seen in the film (Glengarry Glen Ross, 1992). Among these five, there are four real estate agents including Levene, Roma, Moss, and Aaronow, and the company office manager Williamson (Glengarry Glen Ross, 1992).

The plot of the movie is focused on the unethical and often illegal struggle between the four agents for being the most successful ones. Mitch and Murray set up a competition according to which only two of the four agents can preserve their jobs by being successful in sales. The two weakest sellers are to be fired by Mitch and Murray. Williamson is the unbiased person busy with giving the sale leads to the agents and observing their struggle (Glengarry Glen Ross, 1992).

Considering the characters in respect to their professional ethics, all the four agents have peculiarities. Levene, for example, is an aging person whose real estate success if behind him, and under the conditions of the new competition he is ready for everything to regain his success irrespective of ethical considerations involved (Glengarry Glen Ross, 1992). Roma is also far from ethics in his practices, and this allows him to be the most successful of the four agents. Moss tries not to stay behind Roma in his sales but Roma is smarter and pays less attention to ethics than Moss.

Finally, Aaronow is also an aging person who is also indecisive and afraid of taking any steps that might help him win the competition (Glengarry Glen Ross, 1992). Williamson is another example of unethical real estate worker, whose main concern is to benefit from the agents’ sales and from the competition as well. Thus, none of the movie main characters can be characterized as an ethical and moral person, and the reasons for this can be observed in the specific examples from the film (Glengarry Glen Ross, 1992).

Real Estate Ethics

The major real estate ethics issues observed in the activities of the five characters discussed above concern their effort in the competition set by Mitch and Murray. Thus, Levene faces the need to return to his past fame as a real estate agent and to feed is sick daughter. To achieve this he tries to trick out the potentially beneficial sales leads from Williamson by either threatening or bribing him, but when Williamson finally agrees to sell the leads Levene turns out not to have enough money for the deal (Glengarry Glen Ross, 1992).

So, it is not real estate ethics but simple lack of money that does not allow Levene to break ethical principles of his business. Further on, when Moss involves him into their company’s office’s burglary to get the profitable leads, Levene agrees without a doubt because he is driven by the desire of success and not by ethical considerations.

Roma is the one of the four agents that cannot even be related to the concept of real estate business ethics in any case. This agent builds his work on persuading people to buy the property he offers by deceptive techniques and makes people buy the real estate objects they do not need or cannot afford leaving after paying for them (Glengarry Glen Ross, 1992). Roma is not involved in any schemes by Moss and Levene because he knows his way to the victory in the competition and this way has nothing to do with ethics.

The example of selling the house to Mr. Lingk illustrates this point clearly, as Roma managed to persuade Mr. Lingk in the necessity to buy the house without even addressing this topic in his speech. When Mr. Lingk understands the mistake, Roma tries to make him think once again, says that his check has not yet been paid by the bank, and reaches the goal again, as Mr. LInkg leaves the office (Glengarry Glen Ross, 1992). Thus, rather unethical practices help Roma hold the leading position in real estate business.

When it comes to Moss, he is a rather ambitious person and his desire for success does not allow him work according to the ethics of real estate. Instead of trying to sell property through proper negotiations with the buyers and through presenting all the pros and cons for the buyers’ consideration, Moss focuses on the plan of burglary as a result of which he plans to get the profitable sale leads for the attractive property that will definitely find its buyers (Glengarry Glen Ross, 1992). Again, Moss does not even think if it will be ethical or not; all his thoughts are focused on achieving his goal. Denying ethics, Moss commits the burglary together with Levene, but the two are further caught by the police.

Aaronow is the only one of the four real estate agents that is not involved into unethical activities, but the reasons for this is his fear of being punished, not his firm belief in real estate ethics. Once Moss invites him to join his burglary plan, Aaronow rejects the offer, but only for the reason of fear (Glengarry Glen Ross, 1992). Aaronow is basically the weakest of the four agents as he has no obvious talent for real estate business but is rather ambitious, which makes him a dangerous person. In such a personality, there is no place for ethical considerations. If even such a gifted person as Roma resorts to unethical practices, Aaronow can be expected to use unethical real estate policies on the regular basis, trying to compensate the lack of success at least in this way.

Finally, the company office manager Williamson is the most controversial character of the film. On the one hand, he is an objective unbiased observed of the competition who has no particular interest in its result. On the other hand, Williamson seeks for the ways to retrieve his benefit from the situation and is ready to trade the confidential sale leads for the reasonable sum (Glengarry Glen Ross, 1992). It is the matter of incident that Levene, who tries to bribe Williamson, does not have enough money to succeed in this attempt of his.

Accordingly, if Williamson is ready to act unethically and sell the confidential information, it is unreasonable to speak about ethics in relation to him either, because what matters to him is the price but not the deed’s being ethical. Thus, among the characters of Glengarry Glen Ross there are also no people working according to the real estate ethics. This is the main similarity of the movie to the book Alpha Male: A tale of the battle of Commerce by Sam Foster.

Conclusion

To conclude, it is necessary to state again that ethics is an integral part of the complex relations of human beings within the modern society. All the spheres of the human life are regulated by certain ethical norms. Business as a whole and real estate sector in particular are not exceptions from this rule, but often real estate relations are characterized by violated or completely ignored ethical considerations. Human ethical principles are left behind when it comes to money and power. The analysis of the major characters of the book by Sam Foster titled Alpha Male: A tale of the battle of Commerce and the movie Glengarry Glen Ross by James Folley help understanding the complexity of ethical considerations regulating the real estate sector of business and ethics of ordinary human communication.

Works Cited

Foster, Sam. Alpha Male: A tale of the battle of Commerce. Fithian Press, 2002. Print.

Glengarry Glen Ross. Dir. James Folley. Perfs. Al Pacino, Alec Baldwin. New Line Cinema, 1992.