This is a 40-minute investigative documentary.

https://projects.newsday.com/long-island/real-estate-agents-investigation/

My favorite quote:

“This is something that didn’t happen in the deep South,” said Greg Squires, professor of public policy at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., who offered advice about structuring the testing program.

“It happened in one of the most educated, most liberal regions of the country. These are significant numbers.”

Apparently, being educated, liberal, or living in a diverse community does not prevent racism. Who would have thunk? 

A key takeaway is consistency. If your "who do I show houses to, of those that aren't yet preapproved?" (this was a big one, repeatedly) policy is "whoever I feel like," it's not going to be possible for implicit bias NOT to creep in, or for it to look at heck of a lot like they are even if one theoretically has none. 

Many years ago, someone taught me that the appearance of impropriety is essentially just as bad as actual impropriety. If your standard is "whoever I feel like," then invariably you will randomly feel like showing a Mermaid a house, but not a Unicorn, and lo and behold now it appears that you dislike Unicorns even if you are one. 

For me as a LO this is a little easier, we have guidelines and you either meet them or you don't. And certain mortgage product lines, I either offer them or I don't. Stand-alone HELOC? Nope, don't care who you are or where the property is, no one's getting a stand-alone HELOC from me, I'll refer it out. It's not possible for me to do one as a "one-off" and for that person to not be a Mermaid or Unicorn or Martian, everyone's something, and now I have created the appearance of impropriety: "Oooh, so when it's a Mermaid, all of a sudden you're all about that HELOC, I see how it is" and now I'm on 60 Minutes or whatever for the wrong reasons.

A policy I often suggest to new Realtors for "who to show houses to" is "everyone gets one freebie, but for #2 and on we need to see that you're either a cash buyer with proof of funds, or preapproved." So instead of that first meeting being in your office, or at Starbucks, go show a house, pick a tester house near wherever you are going to be at 2 pm on Tuesday anyways, don't even worry about if they are qualified or not, just so client gets an idea of how you show houses (you are showing them your value-ad, not telling them about it). 10x as productive as Starbucks or a sterile office anyways, and cheaper, oh and "once you get preapproved, we can do this for real!" Protects you against the appearance of impropriety, more productive, cheaper, not a time suck if you limit your "test houses" to "wherever the heck you're going to be at such-and-such time anyways" (there is a house listed for sale not 150 feet from my office at the moment, so...), gets them excited, they can post on facebook about how they viewed their first house and get 15 "likes" (oh look now their friends are going to message them with "how is the house hunt going?" and they do NOT want to say "oh it's on hold b/c I need to get my financing in order" to their friends, gotta love peer pressure), and so on. Oh, and at the end of the freebie house showing? Ask for referrals, "I've enjoyed working with you and look forward to continuing to do so once your financing is in order (by the way, you should reach out to so-and-so, I'll do an intro email), and the fact that I liked working with you probably means your circle of friends will also be great just like you are, is there anyone else you know that's thinking of buying a house?"

Granted I'm not a Realtor, but I've never had one call me back and say "man, Chris, that was the stupidest idea ever! Client John the eager beaver first-time homebuyer told me that he REALLY wanted to sit in a Starbucks or our boring real estate office instead of looking at a home for sale!"

What ? liberal areas ran by liberals occupied by liberals discriminating against the very folks they pretend to care about ?? Say it ain’t so ! I’m shocked !

It amazes me how so many are clueless to fair housing.