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Fair housing groups file federal lawsuit accusing Redfin of ‘redlining’ minority communities
Quote:
Seattle-based real estate tech company Redfin is facing allegations of discriminatory pricing practices and “redlining” in a lawsuit filed by the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) and other fair housing organizations.
The NFHA said in a news release that after a two-year investigation, it had determined that Redfin’s minimum home price policy discriminates against sellers and buyers of homes in communities of color in many metropolitan areas.
“Redlining, and the residential segregation it causes, represents America’s oldest racist and discriminatory real estate policy,” said Lisa Rice, president and CEO of NFHA. “The fact that these actions are still occurring, let alone by a major corporation, demonstrates why we need strong civil rights protections now more than ever. Redfin’s policies redline communities of color and will further exacerbate the racial wealth and homeownership gaps.”
Lol, that is not redlining, this lawsuit will go no where given the info in the article.
There is a minimum pricing policy, plain and simple.
Interesting how they left out Miami, and majority minority area, in their examples, because of course that would contradict their claim of bias.
Next up is what ever other entity offers services based on price, lawsuit filed because a lot of the people who cannot afford such product/service are minorities, lol.
from what I read the other day, they were saying different price ranges in different parts of a city. That's walking on thin ice.
even without that, let's say Redfin has a $200K home on their IDX feed and their standard "schedule a showing with Redfin on this home." That would cause problems. Just as frankly if their website removed that feature for the $200K or less homes.
a "luxury brokerage" ... well, first they'd have to show they never take a listing/buyer below that threshold, wouldn't they?
There are people who should generally sue for actual FHA violations. And there are more people looking for a way to sue, sadly.
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That's no different than a contractor who declines a small job, because he's busy doing bigger remodels. Also a car transmission shop that doesn't do battery replacements because they are busy doing $3,000 transmission rebuilds. A $200k house with typical 6% commission split with a buyer's agent is only $6,000, perhaps not worth their bother when they can make $18,000 commission on a $600k house or $30,000 on a million dollar house.
The very definition of redlining is geographic, so would be not taking sales in certain geographic areas. Like in the old days (1970s) when I worked at a water district where we required a deposit for all new tenants on certain streets/blocks.
That's no different than a contractor who declines a small job, because he's busy doing bigger remodels. Also a car transmission shop that doesn't do battery replacements because they are busy doing $3,000 transmission rebuilds. A $200k house with typical 6% commission split with a buyer's agent is only $6,000, perhaps not worth their bother when they can make $18,000 commission on a $600k house or $30,000 on a million dollar house.
The very definition of redlining is geographic, so would be not taking sales in certain geographic areas. Like in the old days (1970s) when I worked at a water district where we required a deposit for all new tenants on certain streets/blocks.
It is an interesting lawsuit and I am interested to see how it plays out. So the question for the lawsuit will be geographic and whether or not a brokerage can stop services at a county line or city line based on price and whether or not they can drop servicing lower-priced homes during surge times. Based on the current commission model, it sounds like they are arguing that you can't set a minimum base pay which means that you can't have employees with benefits and such. You can't have employees in this business without having some semblance of consistent dollars coming in to pay their salaries and benefits. It would further push the real estate world into the independent contractor all or nothing commission model or force a high hourly rate for services for a no-risk model.
Redfin doesn't go into most smaller towns and rural America. Small towns are heavily white (and poorer). There goes the argument that it's racist/redlining.
Redfin doesn't go into most smaller towns and rural America. Small towns are heavily white (and poorer). There goes the argument that it's racist/redlining.
Very true, the lawsuit should be thrown on on that fact alone!
This all assumes that Redfin offers something of value to low-value homesellers.. - the basis of any fair-housing suit has to be “damages”..
What’s the “damage” when a low-quality provider of services declines to provide low-quality service?
Is there any data anywhere that says Redfin gets more money for houses they sell, or Redfin buyers pay less than other buyers, beyond redfin’s own marketing fluff?
The Redfin buyer on a personal home of mine a few years back lost $4000 because the Redfin agent wrote a bad addendum - leaving out a concession I had already agreed to previously..
This really smells like a shakedown for cash to avoid unfounded bad publicity.
When did NFHA stop beating their wives & kicking puppies?
This all assumes that Redfin offers something of value to low-value homesellers.. - the basis of any fair-housing suit has to be “damages”..
What’s the “damage” when a low-quality provider of services declines to provide low-quality service?
Is there any data anywhere that says Redfin gets more money for houses they sell, or Redfin buyers pay less than other buyers, beyond redfin’s own marketing fluff?
The Redfin buyer on a personal home of mine a few years back lost $4000 because the Redfin agent wrote a bad addendum - leaving out a concession I had already agreed to previously..
That speaks more to that agent's abilities than the quality of services that Redfin provides. Redfin as a whole closes hundreds of thousands of deals (at least) a year nationwide. There are going to be good deals and bad deals and mistakes among those. You think Keller, Coldwell, Sothebys, Douglas Elliman etc etc etc don't have bad agents? Newsflash, every brokerage with more than one agent working for it has bad and good agents. As for marketing fluff, everyone's marketing fluff highlights the best deals they made, not just Redfin's.
Do you have any evidence to show that the quality of services received by Redfin's clients is lower than that provided by the others I named?
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