Real Estate Agents Inch Up in Public Opinion

Real estate professionals rank higher than lawyers, business executives, and advertising practitioners when it comes to the public’s perceptions of honesty and ethics, according to a recent Gallup poll. In fact, real estate professionals received their highest rating yet in the poll, since Gallup began measuring Americans’ perceptions of honesty and ethics of 21 professions since 1976. In the survey, 20 percent of respondents gave real estate professionals a “very high to high” rating on honesty and ethics. Fifty-seven percent of the Americans surveyed rated them as “average” when it comes to honesty and ethics. Meanwhile, the profession that scored the lowest of the 21 professions ranked were members of Congress, in which only 7 percent of respondents rated them “very high to high” when it comes to ethics and honesty -- the lowest on record. The professions that scored the highest in honesty and ethics belonged to the medical profession, with nurses, pharmacists, and doctors -- who were all at the top of the list. Source: “Housing Prices Show Signs of Stability,” The Wall Street Journal (May 29, 2012) and “Record 64% Rate Honesty, Ethics of Members of Congress Low,” Gallup (Dec. 12, 2011)