Thanks to increased scrutiny into real estate agents' practices, particularly from fair housing groups convinced that neighborhood "steering" still goes on, Realtors may be understandably reluctant to offer even the most basic information about a neighborhood, including schools, to homebuyers.

The National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) has been vocal about racial steering practices and is currently bringing actions against NRT, Inc, and other firms whose agents the advocacy group says have been guilty of steering customers or providing lesser service to minority "testers."

In tests the NFHA says it has performed, under a grant provided by HUD, testers found racial steering by real estate agents to be the norm -- 87 percent. Whites were limited to viewing homes in predominantly white neighborhoods and discouraged from visiting homes in interracial neighborhoods. And "African-American and Latinos lost their right to see homes of their choosing across a wide spectrum of white communities."

Worse, accuses the NFHA, real estate agents tend to use schools as "a proxy for the racial composition of a neighborhood," steering customers from seeing homes in interracial neighborhoods on the claim that "the schools are bad."

The Alliance says there is a growing tendency by real estate agents to use schools as an excuse to avoid certain neighborhoods when what they are really doing is steering. "White homeseekers are consistently deterred from seeing homes in interracial neighborhoods on the claim that "the schools are bad." Yet, says the Alliance, these are the very schools recommended and neighborhoods marketing to African American and Latino homeseekers.

The NFHA claims that "today's housing patterns are not simply products of private, free choice. Segregated residential patterns result from an array of policies and actions by public and private actors."

What this means to Realtors is if they can be sued for steering on the basis of providing information about schools and their demographic makeup, they could be sued for steering on the basis of providing their opinions on crime statistics, home prices and other data homebuyers may want to know.

For that reason, Realtors may wish to provide their clients with a few websites where they can get information on their own about neighborhoods, schools and more, without the agent being compromised.

• eNeighborhoods has been around for over 10 years, appealing to consumers by providing up-to-date, localized information about neighborhoods, home values, properties, schools, and crime. Real estate agents like the information and lead generation opportunities the company provides by adding such features as the neighborhood information and MLS (IDX) listing feeds to their websites. contact eNeighborhoods at 877-363-4442 to find out if neighborhood information is available directly or through an affinity partner in your area.

• Realtor.com is marketing a webpage that allows Realtors to provide consumers with instant access to listings and to market data from its Featured CMA. Positions are limited, says the site. On listings, you can link on Neighborhood data, which scrolls down to information on schools.

• A goldmine of information on schools can be found in this Realtor.org article called, "A Field Guide to Schools and the Homebuying Decision," by Frederik Heller, NAR's manager for the virtual library and archives. He not only includes neighborhood links to Realtor.com, but also to the National Center For Educational Statistics, private companies that supply school data and links to state school information. School information can also easily be googled.

• Family Watchdog locates and maps sex offenders' homes and workplaces, and provides email alerts when a sex offender moves into the neighborhood. This is one of the requirements of Megan's Law, that convicted sex offenders register their home, work, and other addresses with local law enforcement, who in turn notify local communities that a registered sex offender is nearby. FamilyWatchdog.us offender search is provided as a community service at absolutely no charge to its visitors, says the site. You can input your address or the address of the home your client is interested in buying and little squares pop up in a neighborhood grid. Each square represents an offender. Click on the square and find photos, convictions, and more.

To facilitate your client's questions about schools, crime statistics and other information that could be construed as steering, be sure to have these and local links readily available in a favorites folder so you can quickly send them along to your clients when they ask for information.

Published: April 20, 2007

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