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That's pretty common actually-
They want their kind & you don't fit the bill.
See other ethnicities can get away w/ that......
but if you're a white American, you'd be reported, investigated & fined......
Rarely. Only if there is overtly expressed racism. The truth of the matter is, sellers pretty routinely sell to people they feel are "like" them. This includes perceptions of "class" and is not limited solely, or even mostly these days (depending on the area), on race.
I had an awful time buying my first house in the 80s because I was a WOMAN. Had a really hard time getting it financed, even though I was in the, what, 35%? tax bracket ... whatever the highest tax bracket was back then. Realtors either steered me towards cheap crappy houses (either assuming I couldn't get financing and/or assuming I was too stupid to be able to evaluate real property), or they steered me towards "fru-fru" houses with features I specifically and repeatedly told them I did not want. Like a formal dining room. Or a "modernized" house, where they had ripped out the original hardwood floors and pantry, got rid of the gas stove and the clawfoot tub, and put in cheap carpet, crappy particle board cabinets and a plastic surround tub about 6" deep.
The bankers I was dealing with did things like classify day care payments as a long-term debt instead of a monthly expense - which of course totally threw the calculations off and made me look like a REALLY bad credit risk, despite my high income. It was bizarre. And yes, they still do things like that based on a variety of prejudices having to do with gender, ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender preference, educational level, profession ... ad infinitum.
don't fit the bill.
See other ethnicities can get away w/ that......
but if you're a white American, you'd be reported, investigated & fined......[/quote]
But that's only because of the historicaly legal mistreatment of nearly every minority group by whites in this country. The govt doesnt want it's racist past to come creeping back up. There are still plenty of racists out there who would love to bring back Jim Crow laws, so the govt keeps a check on issues where there could be some discrimination going on. I realize it dont seem fair to the vast majority of people who dont discriminate, but its about the only way we can pay for the sins of our fathers. That and reparations, but most people dont wanna go there, thats for d*mn sure.
Did the other buyer take out a mortgage or was it a full cash sale? If yours required financing, they perhaps preferred waiting a shorter amount of time for less money.
One other thought, did the other buyer go through a real estate agency or did they perhaps buy direct. If the seller, did not have to pay out a commission, that may have offset the lower offer.
The OP never said all the people on the block were the same nationality. Before anyone assumes "they want their own kind" can't jump to that conclusion.
If this is the same real estate agent on all three of these offers, I'd have to wonder if the issue wasn't the agent rather than the sellers.
What would be interesting is if OP was also of a (different) ethnic minority. When one ethnic minority sues another ethnic minority for racial discrimination, how does that work? Is it likely for the case to proceed?
Could be racist - I won't rule that out at all. But it could also be a community thing - my cousin lost out on a house where the (white) owner sold it at lower than the asking price to the son of a family friend. Pulled the rug right out from under my cousin, even though he had made a higher offer. You made an offer, but maybe the owner's 3rd cousin came in with that lower offer. Family is a HUGE deal in many Asian cultures (at least, all the ones I have been exposed to), and many of my friends have unrelated "aunties" and "uncles" who are family friends in addition to huge extended families, so that could be the issue.
Also, when I bought my house, I made the offer first - well under the asking price - and it was accepted. Just a day later, an offer came in to buy it at market value. The owners still accepted my offer, even though they could have backed out, because they knew I wasn't going to ask for much in the way of repairs or fixes, and because they had accepted my offer and felt that needed to be respected too. So maybe the sellers in your case didn't have a firm offer, but they knew the people who were interested and that it would be a relatively easy process.
Or maybe it was just because you weren't Korean. Who knows?
That's pretty common actually-
They want their kind & you don't fit the bill.
See other ethnicities can get away w/ that......
but if you're a white American, you'd be reported, investigated & fined......
Absolutely.
Some can't wrap their minds around it but it happens.
There is an Orthodox Jewish community in a small town that I (not a Jew) have looked to buy in. They have their eruv's (was a big deal about 10 years ago) they have their strip mall temples, they don't want to sell to anyone who is not "like them". They feel they have a duty to their other neighbors to keep the 'hood all Orthodox Jewish.
No eyebrows raised about their discrimination because ANTI-SEMITISM would be the first issue brought up - when they are the actual bigots.
I'd document the incident and report it to the authorities.
I know koreans very well and i detest korean real estate agents here in the northern va area due to my personal experiences. one guess is they have a buyer lined up already. another is that since many korean home buyers don't speak english well enough to deal with non-korean agents, they will end up coming to them resulting in a ..what do they call it - double ending deal where they will get all 6% rather than just 3%. they probably prefer koreans with limited english proficiency and love it when clients are first time home buyers that don't know how things work. they would ask fewer questions such as if the asking price is fair and have fewer demands.
Perhaps you're a cynic and think that housing discrimination against whites, while technically illegal, would never be prosecuted. That's possible, but it's not the law as written.
You're telling me a Korean can refuse to sell to a white and it's okay, but if a white refuses to sell to a Korean then that's a FHA violation?
Man that is f'd up!
Yeah it is. But as long as the reason is something like I don't want to sell to a investor, or the buyer was my long lost cousin on my mothers uncles brothers 3rd removed aunts step cousin side of the family and I want to keep the sale in the family that's who I sold to.
Would you really waste your time going to court? Because that's what you would be doing.
There is a LOT of animosity towards banks and investors in general these days IMO.
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