Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Feedback Requested - Partnering with Realtors

[Linda Hobbet (coho]

I seem to have miscommunicated. When I said they weren't required to 
give us the name of a buyer until a contract was signed, I was talking 
about the situation when the realtor is trying to sell the home for an 
individual owner. It is a private sale and the realtor will, of course, 
communicate with the owner, but does not need to communicate with the 
community, except to give the interested buyer the HOA declarations, I 
believe. We have a first right of refusal built into our Declarations 
but it would be very costly for us to exercise it. We actually had a 
situation where someone was interested in a private sale who had given a 
fake name and expressed hostility towards LGBT people on social media.

When working with a realtor during development, the LLC was the seller, 
which is different. LGBT people were not protected from discrimination 
under the Fair Housing act until 2021. which was after we were 
developed. The North Carolina realtors association had a rule intended 
to provide that protection by not allowing any mention of gender or 
orientation in MLS listings or other advertising for a home being 
represented by a realtor or their discussions with interested buyers, so 
we could not describe the community as being LGBT-focused in anything 
placed by the realtor (who did not wish to risk losing her license). 
That wasn't a problem because we could talk with them except that it 
handicapped the realtor in reaching people who might have been 
interested BECAUSE of it. Real estate  laws and regulations vary by state.

While being LGBTQ-focused we do not discriminate against those who 
aren't. One reason we have a very active marketing team is to avoid 
gradually losing that focus simply because of demographics. Our target 
demographic is a small percent of the general population.

Linda

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VillageHearthCohousing.com
706-202-7178
coho [at] lindahobbet.com