09/24/2026
Not every closing is a happy closing.
And not every real estate transaction ends with ch*****ne, smiling photos, and someone holding a giant SOLD sign.
Sometimes people are sitting at that closing table signing away the home their parents grew old in.
Sometimes it is the childhood home they thought would stay in the family forever.
Sometimes it is the house where they brought their first baby home.
Sometimes two people bought that house as newlyweds, full of plans for the future, and now they are sitting across from each other during a divorce trying to figure out how to divide what is left.
Sometimes someone lost a job, fell behind, and is selling the home they love because they simply do not have another choice.
And sometimes a buyer has fought for months—or years—to finally make it to that table.
That is why the agent you choose matters.
Because to us, real estate may be our job.
To the people sitting across from us, it is their life.
I have worked with some absolutely incredible agents throughout my career. Agents who fought hard for their clients while still being respectful. Agents who understood that we can represent opposite sides of a transaction without treating each other like enemies.
And I have experienced the opposite.
I have sat at a closing table and been berated by another agent because something had gone wrong and it was easier to make it look like my fault than acknowledge what had actually happened.
I could have argued back.
I could have listed every mistake that had been made throughout that transaction.
(Because there were several MAJOR contract violations the agent made)
I could have pointed out every time my client and I had chosen to extend grace when we did not have to.
I could have embarrassed that agent right back.
But I looked across the table at their client.
She was staring down, visibly upset and uncomfortable, while the person who was supposed to be guiding her through this moment was making an already emotional situation even worse.
So I stayed quiet.
And when the conversation moved away from her, her own representative ignoring her, I talked to her.
I smiled.
I tried to make her comfortable.
Because regardless of which side of the contract she was on, she was still a human being sitting at a closing table during an incredibly emotional moment of her life.
That mattered more to me than proving I was right.
There is a difference between advocating for your client and making a room hostile.
There is a difference between being a strong agent and being cruel.
There is a difference between protecting your client's interests and letting your ego become the loudest thing at the table.
I will fight for my clients until the very end.
I will negotiate hard.
I will ask uncomfortable questions.
I will call out problems when they need to be called out.
And yes, I am human. There have absolutely been moments when my mouth got ahead of my brain and I wished I had chosen my words differently.
But I never want my client sitting beside me embarrassed by the way I treat another human being.
I never want someone's seller walking away from a closing thinking that their memories, their loss, or their circumstances meant nothing because I was too busy trying to “win.”
We have contracts.
We have laws.
We have a Code of Ethics.
But there is something that cannot be written into any contract:
Compassion.
Empathy.
Grace.
You can be excellent at your job and still be kind.
You can fiercely protect your client without humiliating someone else's.
You can disagree without disrespect.
You can be right without needing to destroy somebody to prove it.
Because when the signatures are finished and the commission checks are deposited, we get to go home and move on to another transaction.
The people we represent have to live with what happened in that room.
So to my fellow agents:
Fight for your people.
Protect them.
Educate them.
Advocate for them.
But never become so focused on the deal that you forget the human beings sitting around the table.
Real estate is our career.
But for them, it may be one of the hardest days of their life.
Be the kind of agent they are grateful was sitting beside them.
Morgan Atkins
Night Sky Real Estate