When I ask “What are you looking for in a home”, many buyers’ first response is “I want to live in a safe neighborhood with good schools.”

Though I desperately want to give my clients the answers that they are looking for, the federal fair housing laws prohibit me from being able to give my opinion on this request.

As stated in a recent Realtor Magazine article, “Federal fair housing law consists of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, otherwise known as the Fair Housing Act. The act, as amended in 1988, provides that no one can be discriminated against in the sale, rental, or financing of residential dwellings on the basis of these protected classes: Race, Color, Religion, Sex, Handicap, Familial status, and National origin.”

And, as of January 2011, Realtors® Code of Ethics also does not allow discrimination based on sexual orientation. (See the recent blog from Tom Gongaware on this topic.)

These laws are in place to protect consumers from Realtors® “steering” their clients to one neighborhood or another based on these protected classes. Therefore, it is a violation of these laws to tell you which neighborhoods I “consider” to be safest for you or which schools I “consider” to be the best option for you because it could be considered “steering” you to a certain area based on my perceived understanding of your needs. For example, if my client is a single female, I can’t steer her to a neighborhood that I would “consider” to be safer for her or to a neighborhood that I would “consider” to be better for single adults. As my client, she has to make that determination.

However, we can help our clients find the information to make an informed decision regarding which schools would be best for your children and which neighborhoods you might like best.

Researching Schools:

What is most important to you in a school? Do you care most about student/teacher ratio, test scores, graduation rates, prestige, curriculum and/or the athletic program?

From my years of experience, my clients have always found that the best way to determine if a school is right for their child is a school visit. Your Realtor can help you set up a time to visit the school and take a tour.

For online information, please visit these sites:

• Mecklenburg County’s GeoPortal website: Provides the assigned school for a particular house.
• Your Realtor® can also give you a list of neighborhood schools or you can look at www.allentate.com/MLS# and click on the “Nearby Schools” folder under the pictures. The TateMap feature also highlights schools on the map.
• In Charlotte, the CMS website is a wealth of information about our schools. Visit http://www.cms.k12.nc.us for school rankings, graduation rates, test scores, demographics, parent toolkit and so much more. Of course, there are a number of private schools available that have websites with great information, as well. If you need the website for a certain school, you can ask the TateChat Customer Care representatives on www.allentate.com for more information.
• Each year US News and World Report prints a report for best performing high schools and a simple google search for information about the neighborhood schools can be very helpful.

Researching Neighborhoods:

We live in a big city and different aspects of each neighborhood attract different buyers. The very best way to know if a neighborhood is right for you is to drive through the neighborhood at 8am, noon, 3pm, 6pm, 8pm and 11pm. Stop and ask the neighbors questions about the neighborhood and drive the commute. What is important to you? Does the neighborhood have a Mom’s group? Is there a local dog park or a great running trail? Are the neighbors friendly? You would be surprised what neighbors will say when asked.

For statistical information, try these resources:

• Charlotte/Mecklenburg has made it extremely easy to get questions answered about your neighborhood by calling 311 or visiting http://www.char-meck.org.
• The FAQs on the Charlotte/Mecklenburg police department website provides information on how to look up crime in an area through crime mapping, report noisy neighbors and reckless drivers and/or how to fingerprint your child.
• To compare communities, Allen Tate has a community profile file on each of our listings on allentate.com. Enter www.allentate.com/MLS# and click on the “Community Profile” file under the pictures. The Community Profile has information important to your investment including housing inventory, population growth and demographics, housing stability, levels of education and employment and finance in the area. You can compare one community to the next through the Community Comparison tool, which may help you determine between two different areas of town or two different areas of NC or SC.
• Again, Mecklenburg County’s GeoPortal website details further information about services, transportation, voting, demographics and crime statistics in the area.

These resources have helped my clients in the past and I hope they are helpful for you.

Do you have other sites that you would recommend to clients and friends about neighborhoods in our area?

By Amanda Jones