Teach the Why, Not Just the What

What does a new agent do when a buyer offers full price in cash, from a company account in another province, and wants to sign today? If all the agent was taught was the checklist, a copy of the ID, proof of address and the signed offer, then the checklist is complete and the deal goes ahead.

The agent who was taught why FICA checks exist sees something different. Agents and conveyancers verify who their clients are, and where the money comes from, because property is a common place to try to hide dirty money. A large cash purchase, through a company, with pressure to move fast, is exactly the shape those rules were written for. That agent asks for the company documents, asks who actually owns the company and where the funds came from, and reports the matter if the answers do not hold together.

Rules learnt as a list work fine on ordinary days. They fail on the strange day, because the strange day never looks quite like the examples in the training manual. Someone who understands what a rule protects can handle the case the manual never imagined.

So training that spends an extra hour on the reasons is cheaper than it looks. The list fits on a page. The reasons are what let a person use the list properly.