I Love You Enough To Tell You The Truth

A few years ago, a good friend of mine called me out on something - and I'll be honest - it hurt. He told me I was being the nice guy.

At the time, I didn't take it well. I felt like he was attacking me personally. After all, what's wrong with being nice?

But then he explained what he meant. Being the nice guy can mean being afraid to tell people the cold, hard, truth. Being afraid that if you challenge someone, they might reject you. Being afraid that if you have a difficult conversation, it might lead to conflict. Being afraid that if you tell someone what they need to hear rather than what they want to hear, they might not like you anymore.

And then he went on to say something I've never forgotten:

"I love you enough to tell you the truth."

That stopped me in my tracks. Because he was right. It's very difficult to help someone if you only tell them what they want to hear rather than actually what they need to hear.

I've wrestled with that idea ever since, because there is an enormous pressure within society to be liked. To fit in and avoid confrontation. To say the right thing and tell people what they want to hear. Especially within the property industry where many have built entire careers on being the people-pleasing nice guy. Perversely, we often dress this up as being helpful.

But sometimes the most helpful thing you can do is tell someone something they don't want to hear. The most honest thing you can do is to be straight with people.

Over the last couple of years, this lesson has changed my outlook on life. I no longer care about being liked. (Some of you will have noticed that from the opinions I share on social media...). I no longer care particularly about the opinions of others - particularly those who won't stand up for truth or the property industry as a whole.

And certainly, I don't care for the opinion of the status quo when that status quo is maintaining a system that isn't working for the people its supposed to serve, whilst they continue to get paid for keeping things as they are. Broken.

Sometimes telling the truth comes at a cost.

There are many things we talk about within The Maverick Movement that would be much easier not to talk about.

Take referral fees for example. We could simply ignore the subject. After all, a significant number of estate agents - one of our core target markets - receive them. So, talking about banning them isn't exactly going to win us friends.

But having looked at the evidence, we would be doing estate agents, consumers or conveyancers a massive disservice if we didn't bring the issue into the spotlight. We believe if a practice is damaging to the industry, we have a responsibility to call it out and make people aware. Even when it's uncomfortable to do so or ensures we don't find favour with those who profit from them.

The same applies to bad actors.

There are incredible estate agents, conveyancers and mortgage advisers who care deeply about their clients. And then there are those who cause enormous harms to the reputation of everyone else. They should not be allowed to hide amongst the good practitioners using the cover of commoditisation; where every professional in their respective sector is perceived as being the same.

The problem is that consumers often have no reliable way of telling the difference. Especially now. Artificial intelligence makes it incredibly easy to manufacture online reviews, content and even convincing personas. So how does a consumer know who to trust?

What we need is higher standards. We need greater transparency. And we need to stop pretending that every practitioner is the same. Because they aren't. They're not even close.

But when good people repeatedly take actions that ensure commoditisation continues, they're shooting themselves in the foot.

There is another uncomfortable conversation we need to have.

The business models of estate agency and conveyancing. The no-sale, no-fee model has worked extraordinarily well during good times. The stack 'em high and sell 'em cheap model of conveyancing is ok when homes are selling quickly.

But what happens when properties are taking longer to sell as they are at the moment? What happens when the market tightens? What happens when agents and conveyancers have to carry the cost of acquiring and servicing instructions for months without being paid?

It would be very easy to tell everybody to carry on as normal. But sometimes "business as usual" is the most dangerous advice you can give someone.

When agents or conveyancers won't question the very basic assumptions they've made which serve as the foundation upon which they've built their businesses, they leave themselves wildly exposed when the conditions that made those assumptions work begin to disappear.

As Warren Buffett says, "only when the tide goes out do you discover who's been swimming naked..."

Here's how Mavericks look at it - going against the grain, especially in tougher times, may be precisely what keeps them from losing the success they truly deserve.

That's why being a Maverick isn't about being difficult. It's not about being controversial for the sake of attention. And it's certainly not about believing you are better than everyone else.

It's about having the courage to ask:

Why have we always done things this way?

And then asking:

Is there a better way?

Because if you start with those two questions, you'll discover something remarkable. There usually is. And its not as difficult as everyone makes out. It just requires a willingness to try.

We can't help everyone. And that's something I've had to learn too - sometimes at great personal cost.

We can only help those with the eyes to see and the ears to hear. But for those people, we'll keep telling the truth. Not because it's commercially convenient. Not because it makes us popular. But because we genuinely want more for our readers, our clients and our industry than we ever want for ourselves.

I appreciate that's a curious position in an industry that frequently feels like dog-eat-dog and winner takes all.

But perhaps that's exactly why we need something different. Because amongst all the darkness... there is certainly room for the light.

So, perhaps being a Maverick isn't about standing against people at all. Perhaps it's about standing for something.

Standing for better standards. Standing for greater transparency. Standing for consumers. Standing for the good practitioners who deserve to be recognised. And standing for the truth.

Especially when it's uncomfortable. Because sometimes the most loving thing you can say to someone isn't:

"Everything is going to be fine."

It's:

"I love you enough to tell you the truth."