Why Our Lips Are Sealed : The Gene Molloy Real Estate Blog

The Gene Molloy Real Estate Blog

Apr. 23, 2007 - Why Our Lips Are Sealed

Any agent who is out in field has heard the unanswerable questions over and over again. You get them at open houses, when you are out showing properties and when you take a phone call regarding one of your listings. They are not unanswerable because you don't know the answer. They are unaswerable because, by fair housing laws, our lips are sealed.

MSN real estate posted a really good article on these types of question, however, I find the title of the article, "What realty agents won,t tell you", offensive. Couldn't they have called it "What realty agents CAN"T tell you"?

As good as this article is, it started a thread on a message board that began to deteriorate into horror stories and agent bashing. Being steadfast in my commitment to jump to the defense of GOOD agents (you know, the ones like me) I couldn't let it go unanswered. Here is what I said:

Indeed......it's not what your agent won't tell you, it's what your agent is forbidden, by law, to tell you. The funny thing is that The State of Illinois says that The Real Estate License Act was enacted to PROTECT the consumer. As has been previously stated, a good agent will have the knowledge and ability to immediately point you to the resource where you can find your answers. I have them all bookmarked on my Blackjack and my laptop.

As always, if you have found yourself receiving my blog postings via e-mail, it is because I have either blogged about you personally, blogged about something I know is of interest to you, or I consider you to be a person of deep thinking and intellect and I would love to have you occasionally commenting on my blog. If you would like to be removed from the list simply send me an e-mail saying so.

Comments (3) :: Post A Comment! :: Permanent Link

Apr. 23, 2007 - re: Why Our Lips Are Sealed

Posted by Abdullah Amin

Just wanted to agree that there are alot of things that the state prohibits us to say as a mortgage person as well but with the age of the internet alot of that knowledge is available for the public and then they think that we are trying to decieve them. Any ways I might not always post a comment on the board but i do read your blogs and do enjoy them.

Permanent Link

Apr. 23, 2007 - re: Why Our Lips Are Sealed

Posted by Bonnie Erickson

Not only are we forbidden to talk about the racial, ethnic, religious, sexual orientation, familial status, etc., of a neighborhood, but judging whether a neighborhood is "good" or "bad" is definitely subjective. My tolerance for neighborhoods is very high. I go where angels fear to tread. My suburban friends nearly have heart failure when I tell them WHERE I have shown houses. My advice to my clients is to go to the websites for the neighborhood (our area has good demographic descriptions on most of the neighborhood sites); check with the police department; drive by on a Friday or Saturday night around 9 PM when the party action usually starts and see if they're comfortable; drive down the alleys and see if they're comfortable with what's in the alleys; etc. Most people can feel their neck hair rise when they don't fit in a neighborhood! That is the clients' judgment call to make, however. Not mine!

Permanent Link

Apr. 26, 2008 - RE: Why Our Lips Are Sealed

Posted by Diane Mc Crostie

Luckily we are in an Internet savvy world where our clients usually look up all the information about specific towns,communities,and schools. If they are not aware of all the information I direct them to the websites of county and towns where they are interested in living.Being an honest and caring person by nature I find myself falling over the fine line and stepping back to catch myself.Unfortunately the world is more interested in the wrongs than the rights,bad not the good, and the lies not the truth.We just need to keep trying to reverse the process.

Permanent Link

Write a Comment

Your Name:

RealTown Members: Click here to login

Your E-Mail:

Your Website:

Subject:

Your Comment:

Notifications:

Notify me by email when new comments have been posted to this entry.

Privacy:

Private Comment - Do not publish this comment to the public.

Verification:

To verify that you are a human and not a script, please enter the verification word from the image into the box on the right.

Here you will find thoughts, opinions, rantings, ravings, news, views and other things I think you may find useful. I will publicly answer questions here, so that many may benefit from the curiosity of my visitors, community created content if you will. I am trying to attract "experts" in various fields to comment on different topics of interest, we will see.