We are struck now and then by casual comments made by folks out in the field (including, but not limited to, Realtors) that generalize about a buyer’s motivation or perspective based purely on the buyer’s perceived race. Since sellers and their Realtors rarely come into contact with buyers and opposing Realtors, they often form impressions of one another from the one piece of information they have access to: the name on the offer.
It is not uncommon for clients to tell us that they googled the other parties to the transaction to understand their “story" better. We are all for research in decision-making, but this has always felt troublesome. While it is natural to want to know more about the folks buying your home, it's hard to pinpoint where curiosity ends, and biases begin. And what happens when that buyer wants to negotiate for a new roof? Do perceptions about their presumed race or ethnicity affect how their requests are considered? (Social science research tells us yes.)
With all the talk about limiting Love Letters, I'd like to see more attention paid to anonymizing the names of the buyers. Anonymity would be the best way to assure that peoples’ unconscious bias (or outright racism) would not affect how they interact with each other. And we know from research that even those of us who say we are not biased and understand that racism is wrong still fall prey to it unconsciously due to our upbringing in a society built on white supremacy.
Although this may sound like it would make the home buying process less humanizing, we need to own up to the fact that we have a lot to unlearn. And, until we make significant shifts in our thinking, we may need to adjust our practices to avoid further harm.
While there has been much debate about how to assess bias and how to best unlearn or mitigate it,the evidence of its existence is undeniable. As Maya Angelou said, “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”