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The article discusses the reasons why real estate agents breach their code of ethics and questions the major premise that the public perceives realtors as untrustworthy and unethical. The author disagrees with this premise and provides statistics from the Real Estate Council of Alberta and the Realtors Association of Edmonton to show that the vast majority of realtors are ethical professionals. The author also discusses the two possible causes of ethical breaches: ignorance of the code of ethics and insufficient enforcement. The author agrees that most cases are not due to ignorance but disagrees with the notion that enforcement is not intended to punish. Instead, the author supports the idea that punishment should be one aspect of the consequences for an ethics breach and cites the Economic Theory of Crime to support this argument. The author also emphasizes the importance of internalizing good ethics in real estate practices and shares personal experiences as an instructor for an industry ethics course.

Read the full article on: REAL ESTATE MAGAZINE