All “home-owner wannabes” have several common objectives. They want to find the best house money can buy, in the most perfect, decent and safest neighborhood, with ideal neighbors on either side! These objectives are purely subjective.
While it is easy for a real estate agent to provide a plethora of specific but publicly available data to potential home owners such as the best schools, parks, past resale values, etc., it is impossible for agents to answer questions such as “is this a good neighborhood, is it safe, does it have decent people or what’s the ethnic makeup?” and so on. It is impossible on two counts. First of all, any answer provided by the agent to any of these questions is not only 100 percent subjective, but it is also illegal under the federal fair housing laws.
In 1968, Congress passed the federal Fair Housing Act. The primary purpose of the Fair Housing Law is to protect the buyer/renter of a dwelling from seller/landlord discrimination. Its primary prohibition makes it unlawful to refuse to sell, rent to, or negotiate with any person because of that person's background, as opposed to their financial history and resources. When the Fair Housing Act was first enacted, it prohibited discrimination only on the basis of race, color, religion, sex and national origin. In 1988, disability and familial status (the presence or anticipated presence of children under 18 in a household) were added. The law is enforced by the U.S. Department of Housing (HUD).
Real estate agents support the fair housing laws. They are expected to fully understand it and required to strictly abide by it. This is where the can of worms opens. While everyone agrees with and appreciates the intent of these laws, folks in the real estate industry unanimously find it confusing, convoluting and frustrating because of its numerous land mines.
For example, a house cannot be advertised as a family home or a great place to raise a family. Instead, it can only be labeled as a single-family home, multiple-family home, condominium or townhouse. Because of the broad language of the fair housing laws, a simple expression of a preference can get an agent into a boatload of trouble with the HUD.
The National Association of Realtors' (NAR) Office of Legal Affairs suggests the following tips:
· Use words that describe features of the property rather than describing the type of buyer that might want those features. For example, describe the property as ‘located near a scenic park with jogging track in the woods' as opposed to ‘great location for joggers, athletic people or nature lovers'.
· Avoid words that relate to race, color, religion, age, familial status, or national origin ("Heart of China Town", "Hispanic neighborhood" , "adult building", "walking distance to Baptist church", etc.)
· Avoid using descriptive words such as "exclusive," "private," or "integrated" that convey preferences for one group over another or may tend to characterize a community's makeup.
· Do not make references to nearby landmarks that may be racial, ethnic, or religious in nature.
Here are a few resources which provide various details about the fair housing laws:
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