As featured in RealtorMag YPN The Lounge.

It is such an honor every single time I have the privilege of sharing with agents throughout the nation the history of unfair housing, where we are today, and how we can proactively advocate (not alienate) for housing opportunity and access for all (what I call being a “fair housing DECODER”).

I was recently facilitating at a fair housing conference, and one of the learners made a genuine comment to the effect of:

“If there are approximately 30,000 fair housing violations reported last year throughout the entire US, but there are easily millions of transactions between renting and buying each year, then we’re not doing so bad. The problem is not so big – we don’t need to really talk about this.”

First, an important point to note about these numbers: they likely do not represent the true frequency with which fair housing violations happen. It is likely true that only a small number of cases where discrimination occurred are actually filed (due to how slow and muddled the process can be). That’s why fair housing testers often discover high rates of discrimination. For example, in the Newsday investigation, testers found that agents treated the white tester and the tester of color differently 40% of the time.

This is why HUD also does its decennial Housing Discrimination Study – because we know the number of complaints filed is only one data point that does not accurately capture the full picture of discrimination in the marketplace. Just because someone isn’t filing a complaint doesn’t mean discrimination isn’t occurring.

Now, back to why we as an industry should care about fair housing violations, even if they only represent -- on paper -- a small percentage of transactions.

People Over Percentages Curbs The McNamara Fallacy

In response, I shared how I am fascinated by true crime podcasts. But make no mistake, true crime podcasts exist because violations are being committed. We know that murder is illegal, yet it still happens. We know that kidnapping is illegal, and it still happens. Frankly, there is never a crime discussed on a true crime podcast that would be shocking that it is a crime.

Using the logic of the conference learner, we could analogously take the legend of the ostrich (head in the sand) stance and say, “Well, murder doesn’t happen to everyone who meets a random person on Craigslist or a dating app so there’s no need for me to take precautions. No, I don’t need to make sure I meet a stranger for the first time in a public place. No, I don’t need to tell my friends, family, or work team where I’m going, nor give them the contact information of the stranger. No, I don’t need to nurse my beverage and never leave it unattended in case someone slips something in it.”

Yes, hopefully, most of our encounters with strangers will be pleasant at best and uneventful at worst. But I’m sure most of us understand that it only takes one encounter, one person, to turn what should have been an innocent meetup into a “terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day”.

So most of us take precautions. We send screenshots of profiles and accounts to our group chat. We take pictures of the license plate. We have new home-buying prospects complete contact forms. We go to our familiar public spots – whether cafe or office – so that there are others who recognize us as regulars and may notice more readily our distress. We do not leave handbags or wallets unattended. We may even go so far as to have a friend or colleague call and check on us at a specific time in order for us to have an easy out.

For those of us concerned about our well-being, the point of quantifying violations and knowing statistics is not to say, "Well, this is highly unlikely to happen to me. (This is a form of the McNamara Fallacy. Nerd-speak: Making such an inference that focuses on quantitative data at the expense of qualitative information would likely be a statistical fallacy based on the limited data set, underreporting, and time constraints due to the short statute of limitations for reporting fair housing violation complaints.)

Instead, I am interested in learning how to make sure that I (and my SOI) can avoid what happened to those who were violated.

Another real-world example is the occurrence of breast cancer. Statistics say that one in eight women will get breast cancer. From a probability standpoint, that means roughly 87% of women will never deal with breast cancer. Using the conference learner's logic, I could basically breathe a sigh of relief and cross my fingers that I’ll be in the 87% who never deal with breast cancer. Personally, I could have looked at that stat. and lived my life, oblivious to the safeguards that can interrupt cancer from being terminal, like having annual exams and monthly self-tests.

Instead of using statistics to tell me my likelihood, I use the data to identify if an occurrence happens, how can I lessen the impact. Thank God, I did! At the time that I discovered that I had breast cancer, I was considered “too young”, and my primary care doctor dismissed my concerns. That once-trusted professional was quickly deleted from my contacts. I found a new doctor immediately and discovered that the pain I was having was indeed breast cancer. But because I used the statistics, not to dismiss the likelihood of me getting cancer (the mythological burying of my head in the sand), but rather to arm myself with knowledge and education, I knew that pain at any age warranted a serious evaluation. By letting the data cultivate a quest for knowledge, the cancer was found at stage zero.

Don’t Let Data Deny Someone’s Humanity

What does this have to do with that conference learner and fair housing?

In short, no professional wants to be deleted by business contacts who no longer trust that you are looking out for them! Just like it is much better to discover cancer at stage zero than the ominous stage four, it is also better to proactively identify unfair housing at a point where it can be nipped in the bud.

Similarly, I want to challenge us as real estate professionals to not look at the data concerning fair housing, and judge that this is highly unlikely to ever happen to any of our clients by any of the numerous hands that participate in a given transaction.

Nor, am I asking you to fear and be paralyzed by hypothetical negative outcomes – I want the opposite for you.

“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” – Madame Marie Curie, 2X Nobel Prize-Winning Scientist

Instead, I hope your takeaway will be that it still happens — once is too often — which means we must be fair housing decoders who seek and champion understanding. Knowledge is empowering. In other words, we must proactively educate our team, clients, and vendors on what unfair housing (which includes unfair lending) looks like, which NAR’s Fairhaven simulation, Bias Override course, and ACT! plan are quintessential starting points. If we as the pros can spot it in the early stages, we will likely boost organically the trust of those who have come to rely on our expertise.

Dr. Lee Davenport is a real estate coach/educator and author (including Be a Fair Housing D.E.C.O.D.E.R. and How to Profit with Your Personality). Dr. Lee trains real estate agents around the globe on how to work smarter with their unique personalities and how to “advocate, not alienate,” so everyone has access and opportunity in real estate.

Have you ever needed the “Cliff Notes” version of fair housing? Well, move over Spark Notes!

The Starting Point: How to Be a Fair Housing DECODER Guide https://books.bookfunnel.com/learnwithdrlee

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This condensed workbook (based on the nationally acclaimed workshop) offers Dr. Lee's novel concept of being a Fair Housing DECODER© who skillfully and proactively advocates --not alienates-- for equitable access and opportunity in real estate for EVERYONE.

“Interesting approach on the topic of fair housing that I have not seen offered to Realtors.” --Maria, Broker/Owner, REALTOR®

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