Word Ban at Corco
It’s going to be a lot harder for Corcoran brokers to let their creative juices flow from now on. Bowing to fears about anti-discrimination laws, the real estate brokerage giant has banned a couple of hundred words from the listing lexicon, reports The Post. Such potentially-offensive terms include “bachelor pad,” “family-friendly” and “exclusive.” Seems a…
It’s going to be a lot harder for Corcoran brokers to let their creative juices flow from now on. Bowing to fears about anti-discrimination laws, the real estate brokerage giant has banned a couple of hundred words from the listing lexicon, reports The Post. Such potentially-offensive terms include “bachelor pad,” “family-friendly” and “exclusive.” Seems a little much, no?
Typical Corcoran ad if you read between the lines.
Fantastically overprices piece of shit house, do not contact agent because he will not return your calls.
Whites Only Need Apply.
I think they should have to remove all references to “great views” as that might offend those with vision problems.
But seriously, “safe” is a well-known and oft-employed code word. Whenever I have someone tell me they only want to be in a “safe” area I know exactly what they mean (and usually find a way not to deal with them).
Also, as people become more and more lawsuit-happy, there will be fewer and fewer words that can be used to describe a property. And forget about saying anything about any neighborhood!
And my company does not allow us to mention school districts. This is because an agent at another company had in her ad that a property was in a certain school district and in fact it was not (like the north side of President St. west of 7th Ave is not in PS 321); the buyers sued and apparently won.
I most humbly apologize to the person who currently holds the lease on my abode in the wards. 🙂
dittoburg- damn! thought I was safe.
Actually, I’m going to rethink my mockery of banning “family-friendly” — I always thought that meant “quiet street, near schools” but I bet it really means “no queers, no butches. go to church”
Does that mean we can cut right to the chase and see listings for “impossibly small junkheap with remote control dimmer lights” and “fly-by-night renovation but the block has trees” instead of “bachelor pad” or “family friendly”?
“For Sale
2 unit bulding made of a dark color sedimentary product. Can’t say anything more about anything or where its located.
Can’t quote price because it might offend those who haven’t saved enough money.”
Dying of laugher.
And Brenda, that’s the most incredible circumlocation.
Is this “news” for the Post? Sounds as though this is a rehash of a NYTimes article 2 years ago, which included this Corcoran quote:
“In addition to seminars for brokers, Corcoran’s efforts include a computer program that automatically screens property listings for unacceptable language. ‘Some words get completely blocked, and others flash a warning on your screen,’ Ms. Liebman said. ‘It’s a huge list of words, but we have zero tolerance for violations.'” http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/24/realestate/24cov.html?_r=1&ex=1184212800&en=fc986027001ee54f&ei=5070
That article generated a letter to the editor the following week from an HUD assistant secretary that specifically debunked the Family Friendly problem: “Housing providers who advertise that their buildings are “family friendly†aren’t violating the law”. See the True Gotham blog for the whole letter, http://www.truegotham.com/archives/a-brokers-job-fair-housing-laws-too-strictly-interpreted.html.
I wonder if the NY Post just got hold of a 2 year old email in which “Corcoran officially banned more than 200 potentially “offensive” words and even installed new software that makes it impossible for brokers to type them into their ads”. Or maybe Corcoran just reiterated the policy. Whatever, if Family Friendly is still on the list, the HUD disagrees.
Many of these terms are probably not Fair Housing violations, though they may be unnecessary (why not say “5 blocks” instead of “walking distance”?). But these scrubbing exercises *do* prevent agents from providing useful (legal) information while not (materially) reducing a firm’s risk of being sued.
As I recall, Corcoran’s Fair Housing problem at that time alleged active steering, taking white couples to see some rentals and (otherwise matching) non-white couples to see others. That was not a language problem, but a behavior problem.
Ah, how far we’ve come from the dirtbag broker 21 years ago who told us, regarding anything south of Windsor Terrace: “You’ve got yer element around there, but it’s spasmodic.”
bxgrl – I’m pretty sure that will offend those with a restraining order keeping them out of NYC.