NAR Promoting “Walkable Cities”?!
Author: Jay T. - The EditorPosted on February 21, 2008
Filed Under NAR - General, NAR - Legal
First I read an honest report from [gasp!] the NAR’s Chief Economist. “Refreshing”, I say to myself, “The NAR may be getting a clue!”
Then I see in my reader something titled, “Top Ten: Information on Realtor® Sites”
I’m a fan of lists. They are short, often thought provoking and more often provide ideas and info that may be good to share with clients, and prospective clients. I’m thinking that maybe the NAR is here to provide me with a cool list I can put on my site.
The first list is, “Top Ten Home Town Destinations”. Helpful if you live in Asheville, N.C. , Traverse City, Mich. or any of the other eight cities mentioned.
The next list is, “Top Ten: Walkable Cities”.
ALERT ALERT! DANGER! was the immediate response I had to that list.
Why?
The “D word”. Yep, discrimination. Fair Housing. What ever term you care to use.
You see, the simple fact is there are a lot of folks out there that can’t walk. While we as a society may have taken political correctness to an extreme, the bottom line is agents must constantly keep these kinds of things in the forefront of their brains.
We are generally forbidden to use terms in listings and advertising like “Within walking distance to schools”. Heck, some even frown on using “walk-in closet”.
Why then would the NAR publish a list of “walkable cities” and even reprint an AP article on “walkability” in Realtor Magazine online?
I betcha dollars to donuts that some agent out there sees this list and writes up a nifty little post on a web site or blog — “Denver Ranked Fourth Most Walkable City!”.
Personally, I wouldn’t go down that rocky road. Your mileage may vary.
That the NAR is providing ammunition for a Realtor to potentially shoot their self in the foot is a little disconcerting. At a minimum, how about a little disclaimer/reminder that writing about something like walkability may be offensive to a significant portion of the population?
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4 Responses to “NAR Promoting “Walkable Cities”?!”
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“Within walking distance”, or similar phraseology applied to real estate situations, is perfectly acceptable to use and has never been a violation of federal fair housing laws.
PLEASE, PLEASE, PRETTY PLEASE, don’t repeat such nonsense. To do so allows this intellectual garbage to live on ends up taking otherwise bright, capable and pretty well adjusted real estate folks on the path that just continues to perpetrate this dribble and live among the myth-informed.
Way back in the early to mid 1990’s, one such fair housing word list published by the Arizona Association of REALTORS did have that phrase on it as a “Don’t Use”. It was dropped shortly thereafter (as was much else) from the list, but the damage was done.
In January of 1995, the “Achtenberg memo” (named for HUD’s Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing at the time, Roberta Achtenberg), came out as an attempt to basically tell people to quit wasting HUD’s time with such things and instead to wise up, use common sense and stop the insanity that was created among some by these word lists.
Although the original word lists were probably prepared with good intentions, they have instead caused more angry sentiment from those in the business and fodder for feelings of political correctness run amok.
Again, the Achtenberg memo states that common phrases describing real estate or areas, such as “walking distance to”, do not violate the Fair Housing laws. See the memo at:
http://www.fairhousing.com/index.cfm?method=page.display&pagename=hud_resources_hudguid2
Otherwise–keep up the OUTSTANDING BLOGGING!
Jay, I posted on this last week. I think it is a cool site. First of all where I live in Ann Arbor, where you can walk to downtown and the University of Michigan, homes go for the highest price. Everyone wants to live within walking distance to the Stadium. Agents that get a listing in that area, promote the walking distance. I actually put a widget on my site so consumers could calculate it.
I know in some area’s it is not possible to walk at all but for us it has a premium value.
Our MLS allows it.