Hello Eric!  After reading your post and the comments, I have 1 question, 2 suggestions for some of the problems posed by other members of AR, and a story.

Question:  I would like to learn to speak Spanish.  However, I feel that learning conversational Spanish is not going to be technically accurate enough to adequately explain real estate contract language to clients who do not speak English or very speak only a little English.  Am I opening myself to a liability issue if I attempt to translate some of the more technical aspects of real estate?  Many of our forms are printed in Spanish, but occassionally there are exceptions or special circumstances where we may not have a form to cover the situation.  Does HUD or any other government agency offer help with translating the type of technical language used in many real estate contracts?

Suggestion 1: I am not sure if it is available in all areas, but in Minnesota we have a magazine that evaluates schools.  When asked about the schools, I give clients a copy of this or give them the website: Schoolhouse Magazine.  Also, many areas have community guides (may be published by different companies in different areas) - I like to give copies of them to clients as well.  They have lots of information about city and public services, schools, churches, events, parks, and such.  Its also a nice way to help clients become familiar with an area.  So far, I have not had to pay for copies of either the Schoolhouse Magazine or the Community Guides published by Prime Advertising.  They are free under many circumstances.

Suggestion 2: As far as the "is this a safe neighborhood? question goes - I will always refer the client to a state or local government resource or website.  In Minnesota, the state is very clear on the issue of sex offenders and the website for the Department of Corrections and an 800 phone number are printed on the back of the disclosure form we use to explain agency to clients.  I think Minnesota may be one of a few states that actually puts this information on a form, but most states do have some crime and/or sex offender information available from the Dept of Corrections or other government agencies.  I sometimes will also refer clients to a local city or county government if they want more information.

A story...

I was born into a large family on the south side of Chicago in a very diverse neighborhood.  As a child, our family grew too large for our little upstairs apartment and our parents decided it was time to buy a house.  We couldn't afford the homes in the city, so we found a home in a very small town about 1 hour south of the city.  We didn't know it at the time (and this was certainly not intentional) but we ended up moving into a little town that was 100% white and nearly 98% were of German ancestory.  I have a half brother who is half Mexican and while the townspeople didn't try to burn us out of our home, it was obvious that they just "tolerated our presence" in their "pure" little town.  When I was growing up, there were at least 1 case where a home for sale was "mysteriously" burned to the ground before the new owners who were African American, could move in.

Just about 15 miles south of this little town is another very small town which has a very large African American population.  I suppose the demographic make up of the town may have been a carry-over from the days of forced segregation.  Some families likely stayed because that was where their relatives lived and others may have been trapped by harsh economic factors.  The land is not very good for farming and was at one time a very large swamp.  Many of the homes still do not have running water and there is no city sewer.  This is where my 70 year old mother goes for her medical care and no one in my family has ever felt "unsafe" or threatened in any way by anyone in the area.

When my sister (who is disabled with two disabled children) wanted to buy a home, she called me and asked for help.  I am licensed in Minnesota and she lives in Illinois, so I could not work with her directly, but I interviewed several REALTORs® over the phone for her.  I found her someone local for her to work with.  Because of her financial situation, she was interested in the Pembroke area - she was not able to afford homes in any of the other little surrounding towns.

During the process of interviewing prospective REALTORS®, I came across one woman who said she would absolutely NOT work with my sister because she feared for her safety in Pembroke - unless they money was right!  She actually left me a voicemail where she repated this 3 times - she did not feel safe in that area, but would "risk it IF the money was right!"

Needless to say I was appalled!  I urged my sister to file a complaint, but she really didn't want to deal with the paperwork/hassle (which is difficult due to her disability), so this so-called REALTOR® got off scott-free!  I found that I was not able to do anything about it without my sister's assistance because she was the injured party.

Could you ask your HUD person if there was anything else I could have done as an out-of-state REALTOR®?  This burned me up and I really would like to rid our profession of such small minded people who speak in the "code language of bigotry!"

Thanks a bunch!