Do you think it is unethical for a realtor to help buyers find neighborhoods that have high numbers of Democrats or Republicans depending on your preference?

Realtors have to abide by ethics rules. One of the rules drilled into you in realtor class is to follow the law to not steer clients away from or to neighborhoods based on race, religion, sexual orientation, gender, family status, national origin, disability.

Yesterday on facebook a realtor posted he could help Democrats find places to live with more Democrats. I told him I would not post that online, because it could be perceived as unethical even though it is not a protected class so to speak. The guy went crazy saying I accused him of being unethical and it is not a protected class, which I had said, but he seemed to want to teach me something new and defend himself.

Clients can do their research and then they can tell realtors what areas they want to live in. Like Jewish buyers who need to walk to temple might give a radius from the temple, but a realtor cannot say what areas are Jewish areas. Clients can look up the party affiliation on a street and rule it out for themselves if they want.

The realtor association does send “undercover shoppers” if they get a tip that a realtor is discriminating or behaving unethically in any way, and supposedly the realtor association does random checks sometimes too.

My questions for the collective are:

Do you think it is unethical to steer people based on political affiliation?

Do you think it was unethical to steer white people away from Black neighbors even before there was a law making it illegal?

Do you think it is a bad idea for a realtor to write on social media that they will help you find a home near the kind of people the client wants to live near, no matter if it is a protected class or not?