Grab The Bull By The Horns: But Avoid Steering A Buyer

January 21st, 2008 categories: Real Estate News, Regulations and Red Tape

I remember the first house I listed, while putting up the for sale sign in this small cul-de-sac, a neighbor came out to investigate. Proudly giving her the scoop about my new listing, she became to plead with me, not to show it to any young people? She had quiet neighbors and was very anxious about having to share her neighborhood with someone that didn’t go to bed at the proper time.

If you have a real estate license, you should know the definition of steering: the illegal funneling of home buyers to a particular area based on the desire to keep the makeup of that neighborhood the same or intentionally change it. Racial steering receives the most consumer complaints, but the practice is not acceptable for any reason, and it goes against Fair Housing laws.

I can’t say I gave her the correct response, which should’ve been “I’m sorry but Fair Housing Laws prevent me from steering certain groups of people away from or towards a certain neighborhood.” She caught me off guard, and I sure I mumbled something to try to pacify her.

My job is to match buyers to the features of available properties, not to the racial (or other) makeup of the area. If someone asks me to eliminate certain areas based on any of the protected classes, I cannot legally follow their instructions, even if I am the Buyer’s Agent.

Protected Classes

race
color
national origin
religious preference
sex
familial status
handicaps

The fair housing laws are designed to prevent discrimination, including steering, but generally, they should not prevent real estate brokers from being the reliable and rich sources of information and advice that make them so valuable.

If it is something factual, I can share that with you, like absorption rates for a particular neighborhood. I can point out Home Owner Association Rules, or show you where the train tracks are, but I can’t give my opinion about schools,or is it’s a “nice” neighborhood.

If you ask questions about the schools, I will point you to the School District report cards. Idaho School Report I will encourage you to visit the school of your choice, find out it’s boundaries and get a feel for how that school is being run.

If you want to know if there are any sex offenders in the neighborhood you are considering, I will refer you to Family watch dog

If a buyer wants to know the crime statistics of an area, smart agents will direct buyers to the police department or other sources of information. An agent should never ever disclose crime stats or say a neighborhood is a relatively safe place to live even if she believes it to be true.

An agent cannot answer questions about the ethnic make-up of a neighborhood. For example, buyers should not expect an agent to show homes in neighborhoods comprised of primarily Latinos, African-Americans, American Indians or any other ethnicity or race. If you need to know the demographics of a neighborhood, I will refer you to census report

As much as I would like to do some of these things for you, because of potential law suits, Realtors try to be very careful about taking any action that could be construed as “steering” or “discriminatory”.

Now for the end of the story: As it turned out, a very nice young family moved in and there is still peace in the neighborhood.