I may have stepped in a mud puddle with this one but after I was recently poked on social media about this very subject, the urge to tackle the topic could not be ignored. Here’s how it happened.

While standing amidst some friends and searching through the MLS app on my cell phone for available listings in Gilbert (and there aren’t many) my cell phone pinged – a Facebook notification. Seldom can I ignore a potential FOMO so, begrudgingly, I allowed the distraction to supersede other priorities. I had been tagged by a friend of a friend on a post.

Steering Clear Isn’t Easy in Contentious Climates

For the sake of respecting privacy, as much as one can within social media, I will refer to the person who tagged me as CJ. As I said earlier, she is a friend of a friend whom I have met in person and actually had dinner with some years before. Other than that, our communications are scant and only via digital channels.

CJ had tagged me in a post created by one of her friends. Let’s refer to her as NT. Until the day I was tagged in NT’s facebook commentary, I had never heard her name before.

The reason CJ tagged me was that NT was looking for a listing agent to sell her property in Southern Arizona, in a city that I do not provide services; however I could certainly refer her to a professional that does. But there was more to it than that.

NT stated that she was looking for a Realtor® who supported social justice. Stop right there, which is exactly what I did. I waited. I pondered. I had no idea what that meant, though I could have guessed. My intuition screamed, “Don’t engage and don’t assume!” While words seldom present a challenge to me, this time, I was perplexed. I could feel a ‘red flag’ warning but initially could not wrap my head around the ‘why’.

I was being baited. But for what? At the time, I thought it best to respond with a question. “What is real estate to social justice?” Perhaps CJ or NT would provide me the missing piece of the puzzle.

From there, I went on about the rest of my evening though the post nagged at me intermittently, a restlessness that remained until a awoke the next morning and read NT’s explanation to it all. “I need an agent to list my house and I don’t want to give her or him any commission if they don’t support Black Lives Matter.” I read her comment. I read it again. And again.

A flurry of ethical and legal issues flooded my mind. Although NT pushed personal politics into her business decision-making, my thoughts were laser focused on the legal issues that could mar any property transaction with NT or anyone else for that matter that issued such a condition to a real estate brokerage.

Fair housing. Steering. And at the crux of it all…discrimination.

Equal Opportunity Is a Tenet of Social Justice

What and how a Seller dictates personal terms and conditions to a listing agent can also be indicative of what will be expected in a buyer, falling outside the purview of contract law. We must hold equal opportunity in the highest order.

Dollars don’t differ from Republican to Democrat, Libertarian to Independent, etc. The banks don’t discriminate monies. It’s all green. It’s all good. It all pays the mortgage and transfers the sale of property from Seller to Buyer – what Realtors are paid to do…help facilitate a successful sale of property. Social justice isn’t new to real estate, to say the least.

Fair Housing

Fairness in all dealings is at the heart of ethics in real estate. Realtors who conduct their business otherwise are open for penalties, fines, and/or loss of licensure.

Since April 10, 1968, real estate agents, brokers, lenders, property managers, anyone involved in the business of housing had to conduct their practices under the Fair Housing Act, a follow up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The Act prohibits discrimination based on color, race, religion, national origin, and sex in matters of the sale, rental and financing of housing. Since its origin, the Fair Housing Act has expanded its protections. In 1988, Congress passed the Fair Housing Amendments Act to include anti-discrimination for those with disabilities, as well as family status (pregnant women or having children under the age of 18.)

Steering

Nothing makes me cringe more than when a buyer asks me where I think they should purchase a home. Why? My opinion is just that… my opinion. Now, if I am asked which cities are experiencing the greatest value increase, I can provide statistics as an answer. But when a person wants me to say what is the cultural demographic of a neighborhood or if a specific community is ‘safe’… I cannot answer those queries. Although it may appear to my clients that I am not doing my job, in fact by not answering those questions puts the responsibility on the buyer to do their own investigations about an area.

These are some of the situations that cause me, and my peers, to request geographic borders from the buyers themselves. By doing this, it eliminates the shadow of what is known as steering.

Steering happens when a Realtor shows properties to clients in specific areas based on prejudicial thought, regarding race etc. and avoiding other areas for the same reasoning. For example, this would be evident if a Realtor neglected to bring a Hispanic couple or other minority to a neighborhood that was predominantly white.

While the above information focuses on discriminatory practices against minorities, wouldn't the same hold true for all races, creed, and religious beliefs? Social justice must apply to all.

Real Estate Has a History of Supporting Social Justice in Housing

Now that you have a better understanding of real estate law and the prohibition of discrimination in our business, let’s focus on how it trickles into the agency/client relationship.

Back to the reason for this blog. The social media inquiry, where I was tagged for a Seller who is requiring that her listing agent support Black Lives Matter.  As a seasoned Realtor who lives her life and enacts her business in a manner of decorum that consistently balances fairness and opportunity, I represent clients that support the same.

Housing-- the purchase, rental, or sale of it must be based on fair housing for all. To make demands of a Realtor to support one political party or another, a social group or another, in order to obtain business is perverseness of the law—at best.

Further, if a seller expects any form of racism from her real estate representative, why would one assume it would stop there? Would these same demands be made upon the buyer of the property as well?

This oversteps the boundaries of real estate law and fair housing. There is no commission worth staining a Realtor’s reputation over and increases the risk for a lawsuit. This request thwarts real estate ethics and an agency’s ability to serve all people.

To my fellow agents and brokers: Before a client attempts to impose their version of social justice as terms and conditions of a listing or sale, inform them of real estate industry truth. Better yet, run! Run!

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