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All Things Real Estate: Why discriminate? We all bleed Red? right?

Philip A Raices

I commend the Long Island Board of Realtors, District Attorney Madeline Singas, HUD, the DOS and Gov. Cuomo for launching an investigation into Newsday’s three-year undercover investigation on discrimination through the process of steering (In real estate, steering is the practice of guiding prospective residents to certain neighborhoods or away from other neighborhoods or areas based on their identity as part of a protected class such as age, sex, race, color, marital status, familial status, physical or mental disability, religious creed, or national origin and even if someone had been incarcerated in prison.

In the United States, the practice of steering in real estate has been prohibited by the Fair Housing Act following through and recently enacting an audit of those accused of the fair housing violations!

However, people must be assumed innocent until proven guilty.

Everyone else should be extremely careful when taking out clients and how they convey information when conversing with them. Be safe and learn the words to use and the words to lose: Under Article 10 of the NAR Code of Ethics, which expands upon federal fair housing policy, realtors pledge that they “shall not deny equal professional services to any person for reasons of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, national origin, sexual orientation, or gender identity.
It’s an amazing thing today that our human race is still involved in treating people unfairly and discriminating and I don’t understand why? We all bleed “red” right?

But some of us still feel that we are still superior to another race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, national origin, sexual orientation, or gender identity. But thinking that way makes one inferior to everyone else when you can’t understand what the word discrimination means!

The fact that our country is so divisive and broken as well as the rest of the world when we are killing one another due to religious beliefs and opinions and the forcing of one ideology on one another.

If so, what one may believe or doesn’t like, or may not like what they see or hear, may be another’s belief. However, one must try to hang out and see if there is any possibility that what you see and hear might grow on you, if you give it a chance or if not, then just switch channels.

So it’s the same when you hear, see or experience someone’s else’s opinion to try to listen, absorb and engage in a calm and intelligent dialogue, by staying, standing and listening and trying to understanding their side and appreciate their opinion, be open-minded and determine if there is any validity or possibility of remotely relating to what they are saying; or just walk away, without any confrontation, fighting or arguing!

For you will live much, much longer and reduce and relieve yourself of stress that no one needs now or ever!

To me, it’s all about listening, since we are all born with two ears and one mouth. However, many of us have “5 mouths” and we can’t locate but maybe have half an ear for the most important concept, “listening.”

That is what is truly missing and lacking in the world today, the fact we just don’t listen enough and many times are busy talking and expounding our thoughts and virtues to another person(s) or group. If we just could for once focus as much on listening as we do on talking then the conversation just might change and change drastically in a very short period of time.

When we deal with our clients, we should always be cognizant of what we say, how we act and how we treat our most crucial, critical and valuable and treasured commodity our clients. For without them we have nothing and are nothing, but simpletons without a purpose or goal to support another important commodity, our families in the best possible way we can. So before saying, acting or performing in an inappropriate way, think first, as Rotary’s 4-Way Test has taught me:

1. Is it the truth?
2. Is it fair to all concerned?
3. Will it build goodwill and better friendships?
4. Will it be beneficial to all concerned?
Our industry will benefit and be that much more professional and in-demand if these simple but important sayings were followed!
Philip A. Raices is the owner/Broker of Turn Key Real Estate at 3 Grace Ave Suite 180 in Great Neck. He has earned designations as a Graduate of the Realtor Institute and also as a Certified International Property Specialist. He can be reached by cell: (516) 647-4289 or by email: Phil@TurnKeyRealEstate.Com to answer any of your questions or concerns.

 

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