When I was a kid, Miracle on 34th Street was one of my favorite holiday films. It made my heart happy and hopeful that people are truly good and do good for others without need for anything in return. As the years past, I new Santa Clause wasn’t real, but I still loved the moral of the story – do good business, be a good person. It is the values of being a good person and doing good business that I know are at the heart of The Grayson Group.
Our tagline, Success Together, is intended to send the message that we are only successful if you are successful – a Win Win – that’s good business.
In the past month I have been doing a great deal of work in the Multifamily space with partners, and amidst this heartbreaking world health crisis, I have grown exponentially in my business, built great relationships, see more opportunities opening up for me, and I’ve also seen the darker side, the virus that sneaks into this amazing industry of real estate investing. If not addressed, the virus will destroy the good in doing good business. The virus I am referring to are the scammers!
Whether they are called daisy-chainers, scammers, hunchbacks, scrappers, they can wreak havoc on a good business, a good reputation, and cost any one of us time and effort taken away from income-producing activities. These viruses will stop at nothing to infiltrate a healthy operation, and I learned the hard way to protect our business by putting best practices and policies in place.
It is for this reason that I now password protect all PDF documents I share. This way the content cannot be changed or repurposed. Of course, there are hackers who apparently have tools to override those passwords, but I have another stop-gap; the NDCA.
What’s the NDCA? It’s The Non-Disclosure and Confidentiality Agreement, and it has been around for many years, but it’s often ignored by many who don’t want to create it or sign it (out of laziness and a mindset of “let’s just make it easy and get deals done”). I am perfectly fine if someone does not want to sign my NDCA – NEXT! The NDCA actually protects me, the signer, and all other affiliated parties. It is intended to show the signer they are dealing with a reputable business and for the business to know they are dealing with a reputable party. If you’re too lazy to sign an NDCA that tells me the other party is in the business of doing bad business.
Now, I go a step further to truly protect my good business. Before I send an NDCA and before I send PDFs after the NDCA is signed, I do a short call with the other party. I need to see how they show up: if they reveal their character, their competency, their commitment, or their creativity. I need to see that they are doing good business. If I feel good after the call, I move forward and share what I am offering, otherwise – NEXT!
To solidify this practice of protection, I’ve put my NEXT policy into play on all marketing and transactions for full transparency. The NEXT policy requires that any interested party contact me directly to request information. Upon request, I will schedule a call to review the offering (and their Four Cs). After the call, if it is a “good” call, they will be sent an NDCA for signature. Upon receipt of the signed NCDA, they will be sent protected PDFs of the related transaction documents for review.
It’s worth it to protect my business, my partners, and all other parties. In fact, doing good business is truly a miracle!
