I noticed Heather Oberhau when she got into a heater exchage on one of my controversial (oh, well...) blogs. Not only it was flattering that she one of very few people who agreed with me, but she showed a very independent mind and strong conviction.

So, I ventured to read her blog, and it happened to be Ew! Dahling, you don't want to live THERE!  I was reading it, and felt like a rush of cold air was creeping up my spine, and a sudden emptiness in the stomach. How on earth could I be so dangerously wrong all the time?

Comments did not help, there were too few, and those were "Oh, yeah". That was a shock, even if only for the moment. 

The blog is about what we, as agents are allowed to say about neighborhoods. Here's what Heather wrote: "REALTORS are bound to uphold the Fair Housing Laws, and one of those has to do with something called steering.  Steering is when a REALTOR will try to guide someone to a neighborhood, school district, area, price range, etc, based on their own personal opinions." She said that no matter how we might want to help our clients, we can't say anything about the neighborhood, and the only thing we can do is to direct them to other sources, like police, School district, etc.

But this is what I do. When people call me, one of my first questions would be whether they have kids, and what ages they are, as this would prompt me to suggest some neighborhoods over others. And often this is why they are calling me, because they do not know the area, and they want my input and my opinion on where to buy a home/condo. For me it does not make any sense not to be able to give them such information.

But wait a minute. Let me read that again. "Steering is when a REALTOR will try to guide someone to a neighborhood, school district, area, price range, etc, based on their own personal opinions". But this is a wrong definition of steering.

I Googled it and here's what I found: Steering is"...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."

But this is a different definition. So, if my opinion is based on the school performance, and when all kids in neighborhoods/communities south off This and This Ave go to one school, and all kids living north of This and This Ave go to another school, and the Buyer likes the performance of one over the other, what part of it is illegal? What does it have to do with the make-up of the neighborhood? It is not even a "subtle" thing where the economics determine it,because on both sides there are more expensive communities, and neighborhoods, and less expensive. And I have clients who are buying under $100K in the neighborhoods with better schools, because they have children and their education is important to parents.

When potential buyers call me, I do not know their race, or national origin, or their religious preferences, and I do not care about them... As long as it does not affect protected classes, which are:

I can help my clients. And I will.

I think I am color blind, so when I look for a neighborhood, it is based on the price range, location, schools, whatever my client wants and can afford, for as long as I am not steering, i.e. "illegally funneling home buyers to a particular area based on the desire to keep the makeup of that neighborhood the same or intentionally change it."

Yes, we have to uphold the Fair Housing Laws, but it does not mean that we have to shut up, and not help our clients.

What other value besides knowing the area do we bring to the table, if we shut up? People are coming to us for our opinions, which are the result of years and years of experience. That is what we charge them for.

Do you want to be a robot?