The Seller Who Wants a Certain Kind of Neighbor
An agent takes a listing in a 1950s subdivision; the seller is 82 and moving to assisted living. At the listing appointment the seller says: 'Don't show it to families with little kids - the retaining wall isn't safe - and I don't want any Section 8 renters looking at it.' During the inspection the buyers' inspector finds evidence of repeated basement water intrusion, including a contractor's proposal in the utility room dated last spring. The seller's disclosure states 'no known problems with the basement.' The neighbor's fence sits about four feet onto the lot, which the survey confirms. At the showing the buyers' agent tells them, 'This is a nice quiet street, mostly retirees - you'll fit right in.'
1. How should the listing agent handle the seller's two instructions?
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Treat them separately, because they are legally different.
'Don't show it to families with young children' is a fair housing violation. Familial status - children under 18 in the household, and pregnancy - is protected under federal law. The seller's stated reason (an unsafe retaining wall) does not convert a discriminatory instruction into a safety policy; the lawful path is to repair or disclose the condition to every buyer equally. The agent may not screen, delay, discourage, or fail to return calls based on children in the household. The narrow housing-for-older-persons exemption applies only to communities that qualify and follow the statutory verification process; this is a general subdivision, so there is no exemption. The agent must refuse the instruction, explain the exposure in writing, and document the refusal - that record is what protects the agent if a complaint is later filed.
'No Section 8' is different, and the agent needs to know why. Source of income is not a protected class under the federal Fair Housing Act, and Missouri's statewide housing discrimination statute does not list it. But several Missouri municipalities do prohibit source-of-income discrimination in housing, and local ordinances change. The agent's obligation is to check the ordinance that governs this property before advising, not to assume. Even where refusing a voucher is lawful, the agent should not advertise or verbally signal 'no vouchers' - screening statements create evidence and can bleed into prohibited discrimination by proxy.
The through-line: the agent does not become the seller's filter. Refuse, educate, document, and treat every prospective buyer the same way.
2. What must the listing agent do about the basement disclosure, given the contractor's proposal in the utility room?
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The 'no known problems' answer is now false, and the agent knows it. The contractor's proposal is physical evidence that the seller had actual knowledge of an ongoing water intrusion problem. Water intrusion is material - it affects value, insurability, and the buyer's use of the property.
The agent's obligations:
- Correct the disclosure. Tell the seller in writing that the form must be amended to reflect the known intrusion and any repairs attempted. If the seller refuses, the agent cannot participate in delivering a false disclosure.
- Do not paper over it with a disclaimer. 'Sold as-is' and 'buyer to verify' do not immunize a seller - or an agent - from a known, undisclosed material defect. As-is shifts the risk of unknown conditions, not known ones.
- Preserve the evidence. The contractor's proposal documents the condition and the seller's knowledge. Do not let anyone remove or discard it, and do not tell the inspector or buyers it was 'leftover from the previous owner' without verifying that.
- Escalate if the seller refuses. The agent's options are to withdraw from the listing or to disclose independently; the one option that is not available is silence. An agent with actual knowledge who stays quiet has made the misrepresentation their own.
On the fence: the survey shows a four-foot encroachment, which is a title and boundary issue, not a cosmetic one. It should be disclosed, and the parties need to resolve it - an easement, a boundary line agreement, or a quitclaim - before closing, because it will surface again at the buyer's resale and at the buyer's lender's title review.
3. Evaluate the buyer's agent's 'mostly retirees, you'll fit right in' remark, and address the unmentioned fact that the prior owner died in the home.
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The remark is steering, even if it was meant as small talk. Describing a neighborhood by the age or family composition of its residents, and telling buyers they will 'fit right in,' communicates who belongs and who does not. If the buyers are an older couple, the comment affirms a demographic preference; said to a young family, the same sentence discourages. Either way it is a statement about protected characteristics used to shape a housing decision, and it is exactly the kind of remark that turns a casual comment into a complaint exhibit.
What the agent should have said: describe the property and the neighborhood's objective features - lot size, traffic, proximity to services, school assignments if asked - and nothing about who lives there. Brokerage policy should prohibit demographic descriptions of neighborhoods entirely, not just the slurs.
On the death in the home: Missouri's residential disclosure framework focuses on the physical condition of the property, and a prior occupant's death is generally treated as a psychological or stigmatizing fact rather than a physical defect - many state statutes expressly exclude it, and Missouri does not impose a general affirmative duty to volunteer it. The safe practice:
- Do not volunteer it as a selling point or a warning.
- Do not lie if asked directly. A direct question deserves a direct, honest answer; a false 'no' is a misrepresentation regardless of whether disclosure was required.
- Do not let the seller instruct the agent to deny it.
The real disclosure problem in this file is the basement, not the death. Agents routinely spend their worry on the stigmatized fact and miss the material physical defect sitting in the utility room.