Steering
The illegal practice of guiding home seekers toward or away from particular neighborhoods based on a protected trait such as race or familial status, rather than letting them choose freely among available homes.
Key Takeaways
- Steering means guiding a home seeker toward or away from particular neighborhoods or buildings because of a protected trait, rather than letting the client choose among every home that fits their stated criteria.
- No refusal is required for steering to occur. Sending a shortened list, skipping neighborhoods on a tour, or describing an area by the people who live there is enough.
- Good intentions are not a defense. A broker who limits a client's choices out of a belief about where that client would be comfortable has still steered.
- The cure is process: search on the client's own objective criteria, deliver every matching listing, and answer area questions with published data instead of demographic descriptions.
What It Means
Steering is the practice of guiding a home seeker toward or away from particular neighborhoods, buildings, or blocks because of a protected trait such as race, religion, or family makeup, instead of letting that buyer or tenant choose freely among the homes that match what they asked for. The broker never has to turn anyone away. Quietly shaping the set of choices is itself the violation.
It shows up in three familiar shapes. The first is the curated list, where a broker sends only the listings in the areas they think the client belongs in and omits matching homes elsewhere. The second is commentary, where an area is described as a good fit for your family or as somewhere you would feel more comfortable, which sorts people by a Protected Class while sounding helpful. The third is a tour route that skips whole neighborhoods without explanation. Each one denies the client the full market. Its mirror image, Blockbusting, works on owners rather than buyers by pushing them to sell.
How It Works in Washington
Steering violates the federal Fair Housing Act, which reaches conduct that makes a dwelling unavailable to a person because of a protected characteristic, so the prohibition applies in every state this school serves. In Washington the operative language is unusually direct. RCW 49.60.222(1)(e) makes it an unfair practice to represent to a person that real property is not available for inspection, sale, rental, or lease when in fact it is so available, or to fail to bring a property listing to his or her attention. RCW 49.60.222(1)(f) reaches conduct that otherwise makes a dwelling unavailable or denies it to any person. Between them, those two clauses capture the curated list and the skipped neighborhood without the word steering ever appearing in the statute.
Note that RCW 49.60.222(1)(k) also makes it an unfair practice to attempt any of these acts, so a steering conversation is actionable even when the client buys elsewhere and suffers no loss.
Example
Kevin Alvarez represents buyers Sam and Tomas Nguyen-Reyes, who ask for a three-bedroom home under $525,000 within 20 minutes of downtown Tacoma. Kevin's search returns 14 active listings that meet those criteria across five neighborhoods. He forwards 5 of them, all in one neighborhood, because he assumes the couple would feel more comfortable there.
Kevin has withheld 9 matching listings, and the reason is a protected trait rather than anything the buyers told him. That is steering, even though he never refused to show a home and never said a word about the other four neighborhoods. The harm is measurable: one withheld home sold for $480,000 while Sam and Tomas later paid $511,000 in the single neighborhood Kevin showed them, a difference of $31,000 on a purchase they never got to consider. The correct process was to send all 14 listings and let the buyers narrow the field themselves.
Common Mistakes and Exam Traps
- Steering and blockbusting both operate on neighborhoods but run in opposite directions. Steering channels buyers into or away from an area; blockbusting frightens current owners into selling.
- A buyer asking the question first does not make the answer safe. Responding to "is this a good area for people like us" with a demographic characterization is still steering.
- A broker may share objective published information such as school district boundaries, test scores, or crime statistics from a public source. The violation is characterizing an area by the people who live in it.
- Steering does not require a completed transaction or a measurable loss. Attempting the practice is itself prohibited.
Where you'll learn this
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between steering and blockbusting?
Steering points a home seeker toward or away from an area because of a protected trait. Blockbusting works on the other side of the market, pushing current owners to list by suggesting that people of a particular protected class are moving in and values will fall. Both are prohibited practices.
Can a broker tell a buyer which neighborhood is best for families?
No. That phrasing sorts buyers by familial status even when it is meant kindly. Give the buyer every listing that matches their stated objective criteria and let them decide which area suits them.
How should a broker answer a question about the schools or safety of an area?
Point the client to the source rather than summarizing it. District boundary maps, published test scores, and law enforcement crime statistics are all public, and directing a client to them avoids describing a neighborhood by its residents.