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| Free School Reports |
| Most homebuyers expect you to be a wealth of information about the area they’re looking in. What buyers don’t realize is there are some pieces of information a real estate agent simply can’t talk about. As you know, federal fair housing laws prohibit you from sharing demographic statistics on an area or from giving any information that could be considered “steering”—directing a client to or away from a property in a discriminatory manner. . |
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| To avoid the possibility of a lawsuit resulting from a candid neighborhood description, many agents take a very conservative approach, preferring to direct buyers elsewhere to answer questions about the quality of the schools or crime rates. |
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| Fortunately, thanks to the internet, there are lots of great sources for information critical to homebuyers. Ironically, many of these resources come from government agencies!. |
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| You may be aware of some of these sites already. But here’s the latest update on all the places to send clients for information you may not want to directly share. |
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| Schools |
| The US Department of Education has a very useful national database of school demographic information, called the National Center for Education Statistics |
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| Click on the “School, College and Library Search” tab for a school’s student/teacher ratio and enrollment by race and ethnicity. Two more sites to compare schools for academic performance are Great Schools and Standard & Poor's School Matters: . Many districts and state education departments also post useful online information. |
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| Crime |
| Of prime interest to families is the National Sex Offenders Registry, found at "http://www.familywatchdog.us/ .You can enter a street address and generate a map that plots where sex offenders live. Information often includes a photo. The maps give buyers a comparison of the density of sex offenders in the neighborhood. Family Watchdog is also developing another tool to track other crimes. Some towns already have such sites, such as for the city of Chicago. If clients are concerned about crime in a particular area, encourage them to talk to the police department and/or department of public safety. Many cities and towns also offer this info on the web. |
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| Environmental Concerns |
| If buyers have environmental questions about an area they’re looking in, send them to the US Environmental Protection Agency’s website . It has a tool for accessing an area by ZIP code for environmental facts such as pollution statistics, proximity to hazardous waste sites, and information about the local watershed. If they’d like to look at a pollution report card by county, including air and water quality, send them to: http://www.scorecard.org/ |
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| Demographics |
| There is just no way a realtor can directly provide information about the racial or ethnic makeup of a neighborhood. Fair housing laws firmly forbid it. Fortunately most clients completely understand it when you have to turn down such questions. But there’s nothing wrong with directing your buyers to the Quick Facts page on the US Census Bureau’s website. Here your clients can find statistics about an area’s demographics, broken down by city and country, as well as general socioeconomic data. |
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