Real estate agents – more ethical than used car salesmen.

Compared to lawyers, politicians and used car salesmen, how ethical are real estate agents?

According to a new poll out from Gallup, the answer to that question is actually quite promising.

The poll divided answers between “High” ethical standards, “Average” and “Low,” and for agents, 20 percent of responded rated them highly ethical, 57 percent average, and 22 percent low, which placed the profession right around the middle for the jobs Gallup tested. The 20 percent, though, is actually the highest rating ever for agents.

Some other interesting tidbits from the study:

• Bankers, building contractors and – we make Cronkite proud – journalists rated higher than agents, but all were dwarfed by the three most ethical jobs, which were nurses, pharmacists and medical doctors. The professions rated, respectively, 84, 73 and 70 percent on high ethical standards.
• A hefty boost in confidence, though, comes from viewing the worst-performing professions: car salesman, lobbyists and – the pride of Washington and Lincoln – members of Congress. All three received just 7 percent for high standards, and Congressional members sat at the bottom of the entire survey with an incredible 64 percent rating for low standards.