What Your Realtor Isn’t Telling You

I consider myself to be a knowledgeable, ethical, and hardworking agent, yet there are still some things I am not able to tell my clients because of restrictions imposed by the state of New Jersey or the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Some of these may surprise you, as a few of the restrictions seem counterintuitive.

I am going to go over the most common topics we have to sidestep, explain why, and tell you how you as an informed consumer can do your due diligence.

We CANNOT Speak About Race, Ethnicity, or Religion

The fair housing regulations are so ridiculously strict that even acknowledging the simple fact that different races and religions exist, gets me too close to a violation for comfort. If you are working with a competent agent it’s not that they don’t understand what you are trying to tell them when you speak in generalities, it’s that we legally need you to clarify what you mean in VERY SPECIFIC terms.

Below are actual conversations I have had with my clients.

Client: This town is too white, I am looking for a place with more diversity.
Me: I am legally not allowed to filter towns based on race or ethnicity, however, I am happy to narrow our search to specific towns you and your family would feel most comfortable living in. Google has a wide variety of statistics to help you identify those areas.

Client: I want to be in a town where the signs are in English.
Me: We are currently in (town name). Would you like me to remove this town from our search? Are there any other towns you would like to exclude moving forward?

Client: I’m very religious and want to be around other (members of my religion).
Me: I understand, but I am not allowed to assume which areas you are referring to. Please tell me specifically which towns you’d like to live in.

We CANNOT Warn You About Sex Offenders

While I am morally opposed to this, I like having my real estate license since it’s essential to my livelihood. However, I do encourage anybody who disagrees with this law to write their politicians and express their outrage.

The only thing Realtors are allowed to say is that they cannot comment on the residences of sex offenders and suggest you visit the sex offender registry and do your due diligence.

We Can’t Pass Along Information Provided by 3rd Parties

There is a lot of information that comes from 3rd parties, especially from the town, that we cannot provide you with. It’s not that we are lazy and don’t want to make the phone call, it is because if 3rd party employee gives us the wrong information we will in turn pass that inaccurate information along to you. Since inaccurate information provided by third parties is not covered by our errors and omissions insurance, the NAR highly suggests not being the go-between.

I used to pull an OPRA for my clients. The Open Public Record Act (OPRA) allows anybody to request information about a property. I would request this from the town so my clients could review when permits were pulled to learn the age of additions, water heaters, boilers, electrical upgrades, roofs, etc. Unfortunately, I can no longer pass that info along. What I do now, is suggest my clients request this info on their own or have their lawyer request it.

I also can’t call and find information about the cost of utilities, details with regards to solar panel leases, or any other information not provided by the seller or available via the MLS.

We Are Not Contractors

I will NEVER tell you if a wall is load-bearing. With all due respect, if you can’t look at it and tell then you need to bring in a professional who you trust to properly inform you. When you bring in a contractor, plumber, electrician, basement specialist, etc. not only are they an expert in their field but they know the codes and can recommend what other professionals may need to get involved.

We Are Not Lawyers

If you are using an attorney, I do not have a law degree so I will defer to them. Before we go into attorney review I will highly encourage you to work with a competent real estate attorney and offer a few suggestions. There have been a few times, especially during covid craziness, where the other side changed the terms in attorney review, and our lawyer suggested killing the deal because the client would be open to too much liability. I tell my clients that is why we pay for a lawyer, listen to their advice, they are protecting you.

I have had clients who ignore this warning and worked with terrible attorneys that were not knowledgeable about real estate law. Steller advice from these individuals ranged from not trusting a cash investor because they were an LLC (in my opinion, all-cash buyers should protect themselves with an LLC) to refusing to give the buyer a copy of their closing documents (I still am not sure why). I even had one lawyer who wanted me to commit an ethics violation to “speed things up”, which I refused to do. PLEASE hire a competent real estate attorney, if you don’t I can share past experiences and numbers for second opinions, but I can not offer you legal advice and am limited on how I can help you.