A Name Is a Long Game

Say a buyer is about to sign for a flat, and the agent knows the trustees have been discussing a special levy to repaint the whole complex. Telling the buyer might cost the sale. Staying silent might not cost anything this week.

The rand side of that choice is easy to calculate. The commission is either earned or lost. The other side is harder to see because it plays out slowly, over years, in conversations the agent never hears. The buyer who was told, and bought anyway, tells friends the agent was straight with them. The buyer who was not told finds the levy notice in the post a few months after moving in, reads back through the minutes, and realises what was known. That buyer tells friends too.

In a large city, an agent might outrun a reputation for a while. In a smaller town it travels faster than anyone can drive. People share schools and churches, and a story about an agent who hid something gets retold for a very long time.

So every deal really has two prices on it. One is paid once, in commission. The other is paid in the name, and that account stays open for as long as the person does business in that place. Most of the time the two prices agree. The choices that matter are the ones where they do not.