What prompted my response was that I wanted to post my opinion.

Surpressed? After 135 posts and ten days, I woudl hardly call this a surpressed issue.

Uh, oh--I just had another opinion crop up: One option to finding out how to handle this issue of whether to provide info to clients might be to look at other sources. You may be able to find out whether to say you don't know, say you can't say, or refer clients to info sites just by asking your broker. If you ARE a broker & don't yet have an opinion, ask the appropriate regulatory authorities. If you don't like your broker's opinion, change brokers. If you don't like your regulatory agency's opinion, then you have a decision to make--whether to operate their way or your own way. If your regulatory agency does not have an answer, then...welcome to real estate. If you already have your mind made up and believe you can change someone else's opinion to more closely match yours, I guess keep posting on here...but why not try to make these posts more informative and less confrontational. You can't sway someone else's opinion if they are afraid of being called a name if they don't agree with you. Finally, before you form an opinion, if you are so inclined, look at it with your own conscience and ask God. Complicated? Yep!

Given time, we probably will find that our different opinions are not all that different... all we want is to serve our clients so we can make a living, while not contributing to the problem.

Another opinion: It is not enough to not contribute to the problem of racism. We have to fight it, also. In order to fight it, we must first believe in our hearts that it is wrong. I have not read anything posted here that sounds like it was posted by a racist. These posts are from agents wanting to make a living. I do believe that someone out there has a fair solution to this problem of providing information to clients. I'm going to go see what I can find.

One final note: The small business person (that's us, folks) has to feed the family first, and then help society. That is sad, but look at corporate American. The large companies support MD and all the other good organizations, and the small business owner throws a few dollars in the red kettle at Christmas and buys the few employees he has a turkey at Christmas. I'm just saying that most can't lose a client like I did - by telling him....well, it's on record somewhere in this forum. Anyway, he won't be using me because I won't pick his special little subdivisions for him. But then, I don't have 5 kids to feed, dress, and eventually send to college.

Jusr one more opinion, please: Let's not judge each other on a few heated posts. That is what is wrong with these posts when they get like this. People can't see your face or your body language. They are judging you just on a few words hastily posted. So it is so easy to get mad at someone unjustifiably.

Okay, changeagent - I'm done...thanks for listening. By the way, duh, what did you mean when you said your views were prompted by a particular school of psychology? Just asking.

Darlene, That would be very helpful as even in my GRI classes, I haven't received any pragmatic advice on this issue. Would you be willing to share what you find with us?

Okay, I found a little something out.

My Chamber of Commerce has a ton of charts and graphs on their web site filled with info WE CANNOT USE. So, I called Chamber and she jumped right in and said they give out nothing but a map and a phone book if client calls them or comes in office. If they stumble onto the web site, so be it. But I am sure none of us want our clients to form opinions using charts and graphs.

I called the school district. They said, very confidently, that Realtors should tell clients, if asked, that the elementary school, etc., for a home in this location is _____________ school. If client asks about school, we can tell them "you can visit that school in person for any bus schedule, enrollment dates, that kind of info." If client asks about rating, also refer them to school.

Okay, the school employee I talked to was not an expert on fair housing, I am sure, but I'll bet she knows a lot about it. She did not even hesitate to answer me when I was trying to word my question to her...she just jumped right in like she had answered it a thousand times.

Now I am going to MLS and see if the "buyer copy" of the listing has the schools listed on it. If so, there you go. Be right back.

I am closing this topic since it is 10 pages long and many of the posts are not on topic.Feel Free to start a new topic should anyone desire.