I came to Madison in the early 2000s to attend law school. Like my heroes, legendary civil rights attorneys Thurgood Marshall and Charles Hamilton Houston, I wanted to use the values in our country’s constitution to open doors for underserved groups. After practicing law in San Francisco for a few years, I transitioned into a real estate career that would offer surprising lessons about the importance of diversity in the real estate industry and the legacy of once-legal housing discrimination.

It wasn’t until I started working with clients that I realized my impression of a day in the life of a real estate agent had been inaccurately shaped by television. Architecture, showing homes and working as a trusted guide were certainly part of the work, but I also came to understand the difference in buying power between my clients who had family support and those who didn’t. It became clear to me that systemic and discriminatory barriers that had once been legal could still be seen today in the low homeownership rates and wealth rates for people of color. I saw how rising prices were impacting formerly redlined communities and how much racial bias was still impacting how about neighborhoods and schools were perceived by the public and real estate agents. 

I also personally experienced and witnessed quite a bit of bias against real estate professionals. The manager of a prominent company in my market reluctantly granted me an interview and appeared to be pleasantly surprised when I walked in with short hair — I had recently cut off my dreadlocks but hadn’t yet updated my online photos. My colleagues commonly described the communities where my friends and I lived as “sketchy” or “up-and-coming.” 

Diversity is critical for modern real estate businesses

A sad part of real estate industry history is its highly exclusionary past. For years, real estate professionals believed and promoted the idea that exclusively white communities were more valuable than integrated communities or communities of color. We are just now taking major steps to critically examine practices that began during a time when discrimination was legal. Our REALTOR^® community is having serious discussions about how practices like school and neighborhood recommendations and submitting buyer love letters may allow improper or harmful bias into a real estate transaction. 

Recent studies of real estate agents still find high levels of bias and different treatment based on race. Newsday’s “Long Island Divided” investigation was a highly publicized example of how common it is for real estate agents to engage in different treatment on the basis of race. The exposé showed real estate agents exhibiting rampant bias in their interactions with prospective clients. The news outlet tested 93 real estate agents and found that 49% of the Black, 39% of the Latino and 19% of the Asian testers were treated differently than white testers who were otherwise very similar. Some of the Newsday videos showed agents blatantly referencing race to disparage neighborhoods: “in East Hampton … the Hispanic community came in and they really took over Springs.” What the Newsday investigation suggests is that any real estate professional might inadvertently steer clients if they have unchecked biases. 

Our modern society is inherently diverse. Individuals from a variety of backgrounds and preferences move and purchase homes. Not only does the law require that real estate professionals and their clients refrain from discrimination based on certain demographic categories, but successful businesses must now assess their reach and capacity for working well and sensitively with individuals from a variety 
of backgrounds. 

In addition to fair housing benefits, diversity and inclusion are key components of successful real estate businesses. Overwhelming evidence shows that diverse businesses outperform their counterparts. A recent McKinsey study found that companies with greater gender diversity were 25% more likely to be profitable than their peers, while ethnic diversity increased the likelihood of profitability by 36%. For more information about the study, 
visit www.wra.org/MoreInfo/McKinseyStudy.

Diversity best practices

Diversify your marketing

A great first step is to ensure that any potential client who encounters your website or other marketing sees that you work with individuals of all backgrounds. A statement on your public website stating your commitment to diversity and inclusion and working with individuals from diverse backgrounds may signal to those from traditionally underserved communities that you welcome their business.

Another easy way to invite diverse potential clientele, as well as business associates or agents looking to affiliate with a team or brokerage, is to ensure that your marketing photos show individuals who appear diverse in ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation and age.

This is important even in markets with low perceived diversity. Studies suggest that American consumers are often guided by their social values. Furthermore, safety concerns often guide homebuyers from traditionally marginalized communities as they determine where they might live. Visit www.wra.org/MoreInfo/InclusiveCustomer for more information.

A recent Realtor.com survey revealed that 55% of LGBTQ+ respondents “wouldn’t buy a home if they were unsure about being accepted in the community.” Another 32% would be unsure. Read more about the survey at 
www.wra.org/MoreInfo/RealtorSurvey.  

Note that diverse images and messaging alone do not foster true diversity and inclusion and could be criticized as performative. Although they are a great starting point, it’s important to support these visual and verbal cues with other diversity and inclusion efforts.

Develop skills and resources for a diverse market

Learning about programs designed to address the challenges members of underserved communities face can help you offer more comprehensive services to a diverse market. For example, although there are homebuyers of color in all price points, historically excluded groups have less access to generational wealth and often have less savings and family support for a home purchase. Researching the homebuyer assistance programs in your market and asking lenders familiar with them for tips on how to best support buyers who use them can help you support more clients who may not have generational wealth. An example of a Wisconsin-based homebuyer assistance program is Own It’s $15,000 down payment grant for One City Schools’ family, alumni and staff purchasing their first home in the Greater Madison area. To learn more about this program, 
visit www.wra.org/MoreInfo/OwnIt.  

You can also find out more about the homeownership needs of diverse communities by taking the WRA’s At Home with Diversity course on April 27-28 or attending a presentation by a multicultural real estate organization like the LGBTQ+ Real Estate Alliance at www.realestatealliance.org, the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals at www.nahrep.org, or the National Association of Real Estate Brokers at www.nareb.com, a group dedicated to supporting Black homeownership. 

Diversify your company, team or partnerships

African American REALTOR^® Tiffany Malone, an agent with Madison’s Alvarado Real Estate Group, is sensitive to how difficult it can be for people of color to navigate rejection in the real estate market. She talks about how important it is that clients are understood by and can relate to their real estate team, particularly for members of communities that have been historically excluded from equal access to homeownership. 

To offer more comprehensive support to diverse communities, you might team up with or hire diverse agents to ensure a more well-rounded business. A great tool for this is the WRA’s Partnership for Success Program, which offers an opportunity for new agents of color to have a year of REALTOR^® dues and six months of MLS fees covered. This program not only promotes REALTOR^® diversity but also helps established REALTORS^® and brokerages diversify their teams or offices. Malone says that brokerages can help new REALTORS^® of color succeed in their new businesses by letting every new agent of color know about this program. Learn more about the program at www.wra.org/WREM/Mar22/Partnership.

Finally, if you aren’t sure how to help a prospective buyer, it’s better to refer them to a lender, REALTOR^® or a HUD-certified counselor rather than tell them they won’t be able to buy a home. As Malone notes, people of color can be intimidated by unknowns like the expense and competitiveness of the market. A homebuyer program or a financial fix might offer them assistance that hasn’t been widely publicized. In a changing market, a creative solution may give a lower-income first-time buyer an opportunity that may disappear as prices rise. 

Don’t forget inclusion

The full benefits of diversity can only be reaped in environments where every voice and opinion is encouraged and valued, even when they are from newer team members or co-workers questioning long-standing company policies. Inclusive environments promote feelings of belonging within a group, spark innovative ideas, and foster greater sensitivity to consumers. 

To get started with inclusion, it can help to build personal skills around understanding privilege, listening across differences and allyship. Stefanie K. Johnson’s book, Inclusify, available at www.inclusifybook.com, is a great resource for tips about inclusion. 

A note about history

Understanding why there is inequality may help REALTORS^® more sensitively work with individuals from historically underserved communities. Many people of color still carry trauma related to past exclusion, and when the history is disregarded or dismissed as false, it often causes a reinjury and may exacerbate cross-cultural divides and distrust. Not only do people of color have less generational wealth because they were historically denied equal access to homeownership opportunities; they still experience a great deal of bias and, therefore, they may have quite a bit of justifiable apprehension. Showing a willingness to learn and listen while taking steps to support homeownership in underserved communities can build very important bridges. 

Malone shared that her real estate classes didn’t offer “the historical context with respect to real estate. It’s important ... the homes and neighborhoods were built on stolen aspects of peoples’ lives and the impact shows up today.” She mentioned Richard Rothstein’s groundbreaking book, The Color of Law, available at www.wra.org/MoreInfo/ColorOfLaw, is a great starting point for learning this history.

History also offers important lessons about the value of diversity. In the 1960s, even before the Fair Housing Act of 1968, new diverse individuals in elected and appointed roles chipped away at the real estate industry’s systemic discrimination. Madison’s groundbreaking 1963 fair housing bill might not have come about if not for the involvement of the African American and female appointees to the Mayor’s Commission on Human Rights, including Lloyd Barbee, Marshall Colston and Shirley Abrahamson as well as the first woman on the city council, Ethel Brown.

Shortly after that vote in 1964, Wisconsin newspapers reported that the first Black REALTORS^®, Claude A. Baldwin and Haywood Green of Baldwin & Green Realty, joined the Milwaukee Board of REALTORS^® and the WRA. Baldwin and Green encouraged their protégé, Beechie O. Brooks, another early Black Wisconsin REALTOR^®, to open his own office. Brooks would eventually go on to expand homeownership opportunities for all Milwaukee residents as the president of United Realty Group, one of the founders of Milwaukee State Bank and a developer of Halyard Park, a neighborhood of suburban-style homes in a formerly blighted area of Milwaukee. 

Malone explained the importance of talking about this history: “we hear all the time we’re being too bold and unapologetic about the demand for more of this education ... to be a good agent I have to know about conventional loans and FHA financing and PMI but apparently [many people in the real estate industry don’t] see the relevance of knowing that Black and Brown people couldn’t get FHA loans 60 years ago ... that’s problematic.”

Farrah Wilder is a former civil rights attorney in the Bay Area and former REALTOR^®. Wilder is now the Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer at the California Association of REALTORS^®.