I worked as a realtor, and it’s a narrow path between steering and gentrification. Buyers are very specific about the neighborhoods where they want to look, and you need to be dilligent in documenting communications along with maintaining an open mind about communities.

That said, an alarming number of agents I met were overtly prejudiced. I worked in Philadelphia and the surrounding suburbs, and I worked with agents who would not take on certain ethnic groups, would not show homes in certain communities, and would outright refuse to work with realtors for a variety of bigoted reasons. It was weird, considering how hard it is to find clients and close deals, and these weren’t just the elite successful agents who could afford to turn down work.

The trick, I was told once in hushed tones by a veteran agent, is to use the school districts as code. School districts publish student demographics, and any racist clients could use that to self-select where they want to live. It was a little nauseating how easy it is to engage in redlining without creating a record or pattern. I considered reporting the guy who suggested the school districts thing, but the local association was a joke and I didn’t have any proof anyway.

Anyway, I got out of that business quickly. It was a shitty, thankless job that paid very poorly compared to the effort you put in. Clients resented you, other agents were the worst people imaginable, and the organizations that were ostensibly there for support were more interested in feathering their own nests. Racist was just a shit cherry on the shit sundae.