She Made an Offer on a Condo. Then the Seller Learned She Was Black.

Stopthatgirl7@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 344 points – She Made an Offer on a Condo. Then the Seller Learned She Was Black.
nytimes.com

Two federal laws — the Fair Housing Act of 1968 and the much older Civil Rights Act of 1866 — make it illegal for both home sellers and their real estate agents to discriminate during a home sale. But more than 50 years after redlining was outlawed, racial discrimination remains an issue, housing advocates say. A multiyear undercover investigation by the National Fair Housing Alliance, a Washington-based nonprofit coalition of housing organizations, found that 87 percent of real estate agents participated in racial steering, opting to show their clients homes only in neighborhoods where most of the neighbors were of their same race. Agents also refused to work with Black buyers and showed Black and Latino buyers fewer homes than white buyers.

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Not surprised. My wife passes for white. I don't.

When we went house hunting, we thought it would be a good idea if we toured separately.

The realtor showed me a nice place and said, "It's pretty popular for the urban demographic." Whatever the fuck that meant. Apparently the wife also toured the same place, where the agent said that this isn't an area to raise children." And wouldn't explain what she meant by that.

I vehemently disagree with you. Potatos are our friends.

Sorry you had a racist piece of shit for a realtor though. Fired.

I honestly do not understand what the realtor meant by these things. can anyone explain?

Simply put, it's perfect for black people and dangerous for whites.

ah yeah that makes sense, cheers

Yeah, "urban" is an American dog whistle for "black and/or Hispanic", e.g. "the young man who rang our doorbell was so urban. i don't feel very safe."

I don't get how anyone can be racist enough to let them stop them from making serious money.

You would be VERY surprised - bigots are usually very willing to shoot themselves in the foot. I mentioned going to my city's Pride parade once to a prospective landlord I was touring an apartment with, and they all but told me outright "I won't rent to you". I've also seen this happen with friends buying cars - a buddy asked me to go kick tires with him when he was looking for a new car, and since I'm white and he isn't, the salesman that came out to talk with us IMMEDIATELY assumed I was the one buying the car.

I also used to work commission-based sales myself as a cellphone salesperson. One common complaint I had from a lot of my Black and Hispanic clientele was that the anchor store sales staff (who were closer to them and better-stocked) would almost always assume they wanted to see the worst, shittiest phones (this was back right as the iPhone 5 was coming out), even if they had walked in ready to drop several thousand dollars on new Apple phones (which got us a commission of about $100 per device). These people would drive 20-30 minutes past THAT store to come to my store (the next closest) just so they didn't have to deal with those salespeople.

I worked as a realtor, and it's a narrow path between steering and gentrification. Buyers are very specific about the neighborhoods where they want to look, and you need to be dilligent in documenting communications along with maintaining an open mind about communities.

That said, an alarming number of agents I met were overtly prejudiced. I worked in Philadelphia and the surrounding suburbs, and I worked with agents who would not take on certain ethnic groups, would not show homes in certain communities, and would outright refuse to work with realtors for a variety of bigoted reasons. It was weird, considering how hard it is to find clients and close deals, and these weren't just the elite successful agents who could afford to turn down work.

The trick, I was told once in hushed tones by a veteran agent, is to use the school districts as code. School districts publish student demographics, and any racist clients could use that to self-select where they want to live. It was a little nauseating how easy it is to engage in redlining without creating a record or pattern. I considered reporting the guy who suggested the school districts thing, but the local association was a joke and I didn't have any proof anyway.

Anyway, I got out of that business quickly. It was a shitty, thankless job that paid very poorly compared to the effort you put in. Clients resented you, other agents were the worst people imaginable, and the organizations that were ostensibly there for support were more interested in feathering their own nests. Racist was just a shit cherry on the shit sundae.

Fortunately, it sounds like she would still get the home she wanted for her offer.

It doesn't make the experience any better, of course.

I feel like a more wise real estate agent shouldn't have divulged the seller's reason, but maybe it was a guilty conscience that made them say it, knowing it'd cause an outrage.

I just can't get myself into the head of the seller, though. I could understand a racist not wanting to rent to someone of a certain race (even though I disagree with that), but I don't get not wanting to sell to them. The seller gets the bank's money, so it's not about money or dealing with the property anymore. I can only imagine irrational malice being the reason.

In my neighborhood (in a Philly suburb) most of the houses are owned and rented out by a small number of white men. So selling to black people would lower the value (in their perspective, anyway) of their other properties and those of their buddies. A guy I work with owns only his own house and is trying to sell it, but is adamant about not selling it to a black person because he's still friends with his neighbors (who are also racist white people). Racism in general is not about coldly rational economic decisions.

“In light of the actions of our horribly misguided seller, I feel compelled to send you this email,” she wrote. “Please be assured that the attitude of this individual is not something that is tolerated by Berkshire Hathaway RW Towne Realty, Susan Pender, or anyone within our organization or area.”

When reached by phone and asked how Berkshire Hathaway RW Towne Realty was not tolerating the actions of the seller, Ms. Wolcott said, “We handled this. All you need to know is it was corrected the next day,” and declined to answer further questions.

LOL

5 years in jail for every racist would fix the problem very quickly.

Nope. That would make bigger problems because now everyone plays the race card on everything to get people thrown in jail.

"He cut me off in traffic because I'm black."

"Her dog shit in our yard because we're Mexican."

"The racism law unfairly targets white people, so it's racist."

I see that happen now even without the threat. Saw a guy who was clearly drunk enough to warrant public attention at a mall accusing police that they are only ‘picking on him because he’s black.’ All they did was ask him to leave. They didn’t even touch him. It was all kinds of a situation to behold. Note: he was very drunk and he was in no danger whatsoever. Just asked to leave the mall because it was freaking some kids out that he was getting wild and punchy cuz of too much glug glug juice.

Outside of obvious ethnic names, which isn't an issue here, how does the seller even know what a potential buyer looks like?

I never spoke to the previous owner of my home, and I have no idea what they look like. The opposite is also true. I have a name on various forms, but that's it. Our only correspondence was through various documents sent between our agents. I didn't even see the seller at closing; we signed the closing documents at different times.

It sounds like her real estate agent is on her side, so unless the agent was trying to sabotage the sale, how does this happen?

She drove the 3 hours to see the house, and the seller came home as she was leaving. So chance encounter.

Even then, it can be given away if your name sounds "black."

A woman named Mary is going to have an easier job getting a house in a predominantly white neighborhood than a woman named Shaniqua.

Not necessarily a happy ending.

From the comments:

So did Dr. Baxter end up waiving the right of inspection repairs? A proper remedy in this case should include, at a minimum, the seller paying for any identified repairs (given that Dr. Baxter was in a poor position to negotiate due to the seller's illegal behavior) and any legal costs Dr. Baxter has incurred.

If the seller's (and, frankly, the buyer's) agents want to show they take this seriously, they should act to make sure that, one way or another, none of those costs are incurred by Dr. Baxter.

@Matt Thanks for reading and commenting. She did waive the right of inspection repairs, yes. She says it's a decision that she now regrets but at the time she was scared of the entire sale falling through.

Dr. Baxter should sue over anything faulty in the home after being denied an inspection.