House visits

            Today at Coldwell Banker we started our meeting talking about discrimination of race, age, religion, mental and physical disability. Later that day I completed a webinar which taught me more about niche marketing, which I will discuss later. This mornings meeting taught me some terminology about the real estate business:

·      Blockbusting is where real estate agents try to encourage white property owners to sell their houses at a loss, by implying that racial, ethnic, or religious minorities were moving into their previously racially segregated neighborhood, thus depressing real estate property values.

·      Redlining is the practice of denying, or increasing the cost of services by racially determining areas.

·      Real Estate agent can be found guilty of steering if they are seen to be channeling homeowners into certain areas.

·      The primary purpose of the Fair Housing Law of 1968 is to protect the buyer/renter of a dwelling from seller/landlord discrimination. Its primary prohibition makes it unlawful to refuse to sell, rent to, or negotiate with any person because of that person's inclusion in a protected class.

         We then went on two house visits in the price range of $599,000 in the areas of Marion (over route 6) and in Rochester. These were properties that were new to the market so the agent in charge was showing the other agents their new listing and why they estimated the value they did for the open house day coming up. The valuations are based upon the market comparison and then adjusted for any niches that particular property may have other a neighboring one, say with a pool. After the open house day the agent can then lower the price if they feel they were given a lack a interest from prospective buyers. Funny enough the second house we viewed had a lot of family photos dotted around, giving it a warm, homely feel to it. Some of the photos I thought looked like the background Tabor Academy campus, I later found out that the family living currently there had two daughters who attended Tabor, the youngest being a senior when my classmates were freshmen!