Yes, at least half of the team was born in 1968 just like the Fair Housing Act. Michael’s birthday is in April and mine is in August. Can you believe it? I certainly understand my friends that say, “I don’t feel old” because I don’t either. Actually, I feel pretty darn good overall. What does really blow my mind though is how short a time we’ve had fair housing in play – the same 40 years. I like to think that I’m a very open person and I look at people individually, and not by the color of their skin, religion, background or otherwise. Along those same lines, one of the reasons I love traveling outside the USA is because I love to learn about other cultures, foods, and social practices. All of these experiences with people and places provide me with an appreciation for many things outside my own upbringing.
One thing I will credit my family with, as I was growing up, was the opportunity to be oblivious to racism, at least within my own immediate family ranks. We had a diverse set of friends and family contacts so I really didn’t think about it much until I ran across it from other people – and when that happened I was usually flummoxed about how or why someone could be such a jerk to another person. It’s not that racism wasn’t around me, but I just stayed away from people I knew who were bigoted and I spoke my mind when others tried to force their opinion on me. Most of my early experiences were either at school and then later on when I entered the work force. (Those who know me, know that I do not have a problem speaking my mind so I did tend to get into some heated conversations.)
For years, I worked in the tech industry. First in electronic componentry sales and then moving into software licensing of database connectivity products. In both industries there were shifts in the manufacturing sector and hiring patterns that you could see were making those organizations go through cultural shifts – literally and figuratively. In fact, if you walk on a Microsoft campus today you will see one of the most diverse workforces around and it has completely changed the way that the Eastside is populated.
Getting into the real estate industry though has to be the biggest slap upside the head for me that race still dominates in some people’s minds. My first couple of client transactions opened my eyes to this and started me on a quest to understand how race impacts real estate transactions. It also got me focused on straight talk with clients about fair housing.
Example 1: An African-American client selling a house and buying a new one. During the sale of his former home we start having trouble with an escrow company that kept putting him off and not taking his paperwork as it’s being brought in, in person, to be handed off to complete the transaction. The administrative staff is continually ignoring him or saying he is lying about whether or not he’s provided documentation. My client is seething mad because he’s never been treated this way and when he hears they’re saying he is lying he about loses it. I don’t blame him, I would be ticked too. I take his complaints to management and apparently we aren’t the only people having this problem. Staff involved gets fired.
Example 2: American-Chinese client is buying a rental property that he may eventually want to move into some day. He’s doing a 1031 exchange from family owned property outside the WA area. He identifies a 1926 year built single family home to purchase and we tie the property up on day one of the listing ahead of several other offers. The home has had one family ownership since it was built, passed down from parents to the now 80-something year old son who is now in a nursing home and his brother is selling the house for him to pay medical costs and care.
During the transaction we’re working out an inspection problem with the electrical – the seller (actually, the brother) isn’t budging. I can’t figure out why because we’re offering half the cost of the repair and insurers won’t touch the house without the upgrade from fuses to electrical panel. I’m getting a bad gut feeling. After a very long conversation with the listing agent, I learn that the seller wanted to sell to a “nice white family with kids”. “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?”, I think. This guy has just given me details that would allow my client to sue him – and sue him big too. Right or wrong, I did not share this info with my client immediately because my job was to negotiate the electrical issue at that point and to help my client purchase the property. Also, not buying the house would have possibly put the buyer in financial jeopardy because of the timelines associated with 1031 exchanges. A lawsuit would have dragged this out and gone beyond his 180 day period. So, I pressed the other agent – mentioning that this was a fair housing issue (he agrees) – and telling him he needed to work this out with his client NOW or risk a tougher fate. Thankfully, he pulled through and we were able to successfully close the transaction without my client having to learn of the ugly truth of what had gone on. I couldn’t bear the idea of sharing that comment with him and tainting how he might feel about his purchase because someone else’s racist view isn’t a material defect and in the end the client got what he negotiated for and what he wanted. I will say though, that if the transaction had begun to fail, this would have been told to my client immediately so that he would know his options.
These kinds of situations come up more frequently than you’d think. To begin trying to understand the mindset of these issues I started reading books like One Man’s Castle. The story is sad but it is a stark reminder of what we as a nation need to recover from in our past. Yes, it’s 40 years later but we’ve all still got a long way to go.
Let’s hope that as they years continue we’ll see less and less of these kinds of situations occur.
