NAR's Changes to Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice

I am on the Texas (TAR) Professional Standards Committee and I was just emailed the changes that were adopted for 2008 from NAR, and I kinda chuckled. I'm not sure if others have read the changes, but this really caught my eye.

Article 12 used to say, "REALTORS® shall be careful at all times to present a true picture in their advertising and representations to the public..."

The revised Article says, "REALTORS® shall be honest and truthful in their real estate communications and shall present a true picture in their advetising, marketing, and other representations..."

What caught your eye? What caught my eye is what should have caught your eye too since I bolded the words, that we went from having to be "careful" to having to be "honest and truthful". When I see that, it shows that there were so many REALTORS® not being "careful" and they had to actually be told to be "honest and truthful." How sad is that.

I would think the two went hand in hand. If you're not being honest and truthful, you're definitely not being careful. And if you're being careful about not being caught being honest and truthful, then you're not very ethical which blows the entire Code of Ethics out of the water.

What do others think about this change, and have you witnessed reasons for this change? I would love to hear about your experiences with other agents who violated the original article making a need to change the verbiage (no names are needed in case they are members of this forum).