Steering in Real Estate: What Prospective Homebuyers Should Know
Abstract
Steering can occur consciously or even unconsciously when real estate agents make assumptions about what a customer wants or needs based on the customer's personal characteristics, including race, gender, and sexual orientation. Nowadays, some agents instead apply other tactics to steer buyers to certain communities based on race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or other protected characteristics. Steering has become a subtle and sometimes unintentional form of discrimination, where agents place certain homebuyers into more integrated neighborhoods at a higher rate than other homebuyers. Steering A form of redlining, steering involves a real estate agent influencing a homebuyer's choice of communities based on the buyer's race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or other protected characteristic. How are real estate agents trained? Before somebody becomes a real estate agent, they have to take licensing and training courses. Many state licensing laws also prohibit discrimination, and an agent found to be in violation may have their license revoked or be banned from NAR. How should real estate agents treat homebuyers and sellers? In order to reduce the possibility of steering, agents should always: Be objective: Provide customers with objective information that lets the customer drive their home search. What to do if steering is happening to you The following are some steps you might take if you're a homebuyer who thinks you're experiencing steering: Ask: The first thing you should do is talk to your agent or brokerage.
