Real Estate Agent Won't Comment on Neighborhood

this is 100% true. Agents can not comment on the safety of a neighborhood and can have their license revoked if caught doing so.

Absurd? Not at all. Look up the Fair Housing Act for your answer.

Yes this is true. I deal with this often with my buyer clients, and its difficult to try to explain to them how we as agents are restricted on answering certain types of questions for fear of getting our license revoked. Fair housing laws are quite strict. Buyers often want to know stuff like "how are the schools in this neighborhood", "what kinds of people live in this building? younger? older? etc.", "is this neighborhood safe"...where answers can be interpreted as in violation of certain fair housing laws, like 'steering', or 'discrimination against certain protected classes'. Thats a quick way to lose your license and your business. Part of being an ethical agent, which buyers and sellers usually want, is following these fair housing laws in the field.

Take this example: if you are a NYS tester for Division of Licensing services out there to find agents who violate fair housing laws, and acts as a buyer testing an agent. The buyer, aka, the tester, likes an apt but asks about the safety of the neighborhood and the agent responds, "This area is not considered that safe, and I would bid lower or walk away and focus on another neighborhood", what do you think the tester's reaction would be?? That could easily violate existing fair housing laws.

http://homebuying.about.com/od/realestateagents/qt/AgentDuties.htm

As the bottom part of this url states, agents who encounter these kinds of questions about safety of neighborhood, are taught and advised to answer "Im sorry, I cannot answer this kind of question because it violates Fair Housing Laws. However, it is not illegal for me to advise you to check public sources for crime information on any neighborhood of Manhattan or Brooklyn". Anything that implies the potential for discrimination against a protected class (race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin) is a potential violation. So you can imagine why agents are taught to be so careful. Even directions to a property for sale or rent can by an agent to a client can be a violation - i.e., the building is right near a synagogue, can be a violation of religious preference. Yes, it stretches quite far! I have to side with the agent on this one. I would tell you to spend a few days walking around the area for yourself, and checking for yourself how the neighborhood fits with your expectation of 'safe'. Also, definitely check public sources of information on crime statistics and talk to any friends you may know who live in or near the area. That seems the best bet. Good luck!

sorry forgot this link too

http://www.ag.ny.gov/features/fair_housing/about.html

Thanks for the info, everyone.

I think what caught me more off-guard was how she handled the situation. She didn't explain it at all and just seemed to get an attitude. Plus, seems like a lot of her listings say stuff along the lines of "great schools" which strikes me as essentially the same type of violation.

Thanks again.

http://streeteasy.com/blog/streeteasy-neighborhood-experts/

Back in the early 70s, my dad was deciding between moving to whitestone or south bayside.
He asked the agent if a lot of jews lived in this particular area in whitestone.
The agent told him , "You dont have to worry about them here."
I guess my father, a north african jew and didnt look the part took the information as valuable, ignored the slight and decided on south bayside.
Saved me years of being abused in elementary and possibly junior high for being jewish.

Though leaving Corona, it was an upgrade either way.

I asked about certain neighborhoods when I was planning to move. The broker told me it was not ethical to discuss that as he could influence the sales in certain buildings. He told me that evaluations of neighborhoods and buildings within neighborhoods were a subjective matter for the most part. He recommended looking at the NY Times neighborhood guides as they archive their articles. He also suggested looking at online real estate services and police records to make my own judgment. He said you could get all sorts of information online today: ethnicity, local services, crime rates, sales/rental data, religious institutions, schools, etc. He also reminded me that when a bid is accepted, the buyer's lawyer should look at a lot of these matters within the building itself as part of due diligence.

It's not only illegal to discuss crime if you're a real estate agent, it's also illegal if you're showing your own property as an unlicensed owner (investment property or your residence; even commercial). It's illegal for everyone, period, and the penalties are severe.

One possible reason for the attitude is that agents know there are undercover agents out there looking for Fair Housing Law violations. Your question is so unusually uninformed (sorry) that she might have concluded you were on a sting mission. I would certainly be upset to be asked something like that by a supposedly sophisticated New York City investor.

BTW, the most common thing I see that I think is a Fair Housing violation in ads is, "Kosher kitchen." The kitchen isn't kosher unless the residents are. The kitchen might have 2 ovens and 2 dishwashers, and if so, that is what the ad should say.

government restricting speech

Why is it illegal to talk about crime in a particular neighborhood?

Crime data is widely available, so by limiting broker's ability to talk about it, it serves as a way for the government to be able to humiliate and neuter the brokerage community.

What's illegal is "steering," which means sending buyers to or away from neighborhoods that reflect a particular demographic. For example, if a buyer says, "I'm looking for a neighborhood with a Beverly Hills vibe, those kinds of folks" I was taught (this is an example from class) that it is illegal to direct them to, say, the Gold Coast of Long Island.

So the problem of talking about crime is that it is very quickly and easily steering--directing nice people away from an area which helps insure the area never becomes any nicer. People often say crime is a proxy for race, but there are places in the USA that are all-white essentially but have high crime, and the issue still holds true. It's more a proxy for income.

Crime is considered a proxy for which race(s)?

Indy 500 & Nemzeti dij

people who ask "is this area safe" know exactly what they are really asking. Its a stupid question for an adult to be asking.

why's that ?

Yes they want to know if its safe. My first house was in Dix Hills. The south part is near a largely minority area. I went to the police department and found the two area to have similar rates. So I bought the south side. I really wanted to know if it was safe; not who lived by there

Seems like if I were moving into a new neighborhood, safety would be a legitimate question. I guess the crime stats can be looked up online if the broker is not allowed to talk about it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/24/nyregion/rape-by-strangers-new-york-city.html

"In a world obsessed with data and pre-emption, the Police Department does not make public a map of where and when stranger rapes have occurred, so that women might avoid particular streets or neighborhoods at certain times as a precaution. While it is possible to know, within microseconds of clicking on the department’s website, that there were three instances of grand larceny in Van Cortlandt Park during the third quarter of last year — hold on to your Nikon D7200! — there is no easy way for a civilian to determine, for instance, that the highest concentration of stranger rapes last year, nine, occurred in and around...

So you mean the police won't let criminals know which intersections they'll particularly be watching? How unfortunate.

Speaking of criminals, are white-collar crimes reported by precinct?

intersections? You are nuts.