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 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.

Can you add a non-paywalled link to paywalled stories please?

https://archive.ph/ib8pf

Edit: Also-

Virginia Beach

What a shock.

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 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.

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.

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?

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver - Housing Discrimination

Did she get the condo?

"You won't BELIEVE what happens NEXT!"

Anyone got an archive of this?