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Using The Web To Find Information Your Realtor Won't Tell YouA real estate agent can be a wealth of information about a house. So a home buyer who asks what crime is like in the neighborhood might be surprised when the agent defers the question, directing a client to the Web or the local police instead.There are some pieces of information that an agent simply can't speak about due to fair housing laws, including demographic statistics. And they often prefer to leave some characteristics, such as the quality of the school district or crime stats, answered by other sources. The conservative approach is often taken in order to avoid a lawsuit popping up in response to frank neighborhood talk, said Ralph Holmen, associate general counsel of the National Association of Realtors. Agents are forbidden from giving any information that could be considered "steering," directing a client toward or away from a particular property in a discriminatory manner. And some of this information will make or break a decision to buy. The quality of school systems, for example, has long been of importance to home-buying families. Luckily, there are a variety of sources buyers can use to get at the information on their own. Unless a realty agent has hard data at his or her fingertips, the agent may decline to answer school-district questions. And even if they are willing to share some information, a home buyer might want to do some fact-finding -- or maybe even complete the research before deciding which neighborhoods to consider in the first place. A national database of school demographic information can be found on the National Center for Education Statistics Web site. Click on the "School, College and Library Search" tab at the top in order to view data including a particular school's student-to-teacher ratio or enrollment by race and ethnicity. Homeowners needing to sell their home visit 888SOLDin9 to talk with our Jacksonville FL partner about their personal financial situation. Our Jacksonville FL partner, Jim Tallent buys, sells, renovates and rents homes and properties in Jacksonville FL, Duval County FL and surrounding areas. click here for article |