Sex offender next door? Don’t blame your Realtor
Want to know how many sex offenders live in that neighborhood you’re considering moving into?
Don’t ask your real estate agent. He or she isn’t allowed to tell you.
Buyers are sometimes surprised when their real estate agents won’t fill them in on the neighbors, give their opinion on the strength of local schools or confirm that an area is either one that’s high-crime or low-crime.
But buyers shouldn’t blame agents for their reticence: Fair Housing laws mandate that real estate agents are to help buyers find properties. They’re allowed to tell you prety much anything regarding the physical structure of the home you’re considering. But they are not allowed to interpret, and give their opinion, on local demographics.
This means that while they can’t tell you that a sex offender lives nearby, they can tell you to look up the information on one of the many Web sites that track where registered offenders live.
This can get tricky. For instance, agents are allowed to give specific facts – such as scores on standardized tests – regarding local schools. But they’re not then allowed to give their opinion on the quality of these schools. Semantics? Maybe. But Fair Housing laws are worth it. They help prevent such insidious practices as racial steering.
Besides, there are plenty of ways to find out about your neighbors and neighborhood without relying on your agent. Want to see where the registered sex offenders in your potential new neighborhood live? A growing number of communities provide this information online. Want to make sure that your neighbors, even if they’re not sex offenders, aren’t obnoxious? Hang out in the neighborhood at different hours in the day. You might find that your potential next-door neighbor throws loud parties every other night. Interested in crime stats? Call the local police department or read the police blotters in the area newspaper. School test scores are easy to find, too. Just call the local school.
The point is, you can’t count solely on your real estate agent to make sure that your new neighborhood is one that fits your needs. You’re the one making what will probably be the biggest investment of your life. You’re the one, then, who should be doing the research to make sure it’s an investment that pays off.
Tags: fair-housing-laws, racial-steering, school-test-scores, sex-offender-databaseRelated Stories
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