Perched on a hill overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, this Virginia Beach apartment is exactly what Dr. Raven Baxter wanted. It has a marble fireplace, a private foyer and details like moldings and baseboards in the three bedrooms and three bathrooms.
At $749,000, it was well within her budget. She offered the asking price and it was accepted and a deposit was sent. And then when she was in escrow earlier this month, her broker called her late at night on May 17, a Friday, with some bad news.
The seller wants out of the deal.
Why? “You could hear the fear and disbelief in his voice,” Dr. Baxter said, recalling what the broker told her next. “He said, ‘I don’t know how to tell you this, but she doesn’t want to sell you the house, and that’s because you’re black.’”
The seller, Jane Walker, 84, is white.
Ms. Walker did not respond to requests for comment. Bill Loftis, Dr. Baxter’s broker, said: “We have no comment on this matter because we cannot do anything to endanger our clients. [sic] transaction.”
The situation emerged a few hours later, when Dr. Baxter, 30, a molecular biologist and science communicator, ran the website. Dr. Raven Maven Scientistshared what happened in a post on X. Her public broadcast to 163,000 followers and others have drawn attention to the bias that continues to plague the housing industry and the laws that supposedly prohibit discrimination, even as Dr. Steps to finally continue buying an apartment.
Two federal laws — the Fair Housing Act of 1968 and the much older Civil Rights Act of 1866 — make it illegal for both home sellers and their real estate agents to discriminate in the home selling process. . But more than 50 years after redlining was outlawed again, segregation remains a problem, housing advocates say. A multi-year undercover investigation by the National Fair Housing Coalition, a coalition of nonprofit housing organizations based in Washington, found that 87% of real estate agents engaged in corruption. engaged in racial profiling, choosing to only show their clients homes in neighborhoods where most of the neighbors lived. of their same race. Agents also refused to work with Black buyers and showed Black and Latino buyers fewer homes than white buyers.
At the recommendation of commenters on his social media post, Dr. Baxter filed a complaint of discrimination with the Virginia Office of Fair Housing and the Department of Housing and Urban Development USA. She also contacted a civil rights attorney.
“If I hadn’t gone on Twitter and gotten help from people who knew what they were doing, I would have been panicking all weekend,” Dr. Baxter said. “This is my first time buying a house. I know my civil rights are being violated. I knew something illegal was happening but no one knew what to do.”
‘Falling back in my chair’
Dr. Baxter, who works remotely for Mt. Sinai, of New York, currently shares a rented apartment in Alexandria, Va., with her boyfriend, Dr. Ronald Gamble Jr., 35, a theoretical astrophysicist. After her divorce two years ago, she desperately wanted to own a home, and Dr. Gamble encouraged her to find a house near the beach, something she had long dreamed of. He promised to divide his time between his new home and Washington, DC, where he works at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
Dr. Baxter first saw the Virginia Beach apartment listing in early May on Zillow and contacted the agent, Wayne Miller, who offered to help her visit the apartment and provide a tour. via FaceTime.
Dr. Baxter turned off his camera while Mr. Miller, who is white, toured the house with Ms. Walker’s agent as one of the guides. The virtual tour was enough for Dr. Baxter to make an offer.
“It’s a classic house with lots of character. It’s absolutely gorgeous and you can walk to the beach. It was like a robbery,” she said. “I basically made an offer sight unseen.”
Two weeks later, with the home sold in escrow and on the same day as the home inspection, Dr. Baxter and Dr. Gamble drove three hours to Virginia Beach to see the house for the first time. Ms. Walker arrived as the couple was preparing to leave, and Ms. Walker’s agent, Susan Pender of Berkshire Hathaway RW Towne Realty, introduced the seller to the buyer.
Immediately after Dr. Baxter and Dr. Gamble drove away from the house, Ms. Walker informed her agent that she was not willing to sell her house to a negro and that she wanted to cancel the sale, according to the sequence of events. compiled by Mr. Miller and shared by Dr. Baxter with The New York Times. Mr. Miller declined to comment and Ms. Pender did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
But what happened next, according to Dr. Baxter and Dr. Gamble and supported by Mr. Miller’s recounted written timeline, was a series of frantic actions by both real estate agents. The two sides aim to save the home purchase deal.
Ms. Walker’s agent called Mr. Miller to say that Ms. Walker wanted to back out of buying the house. Mr. Miller, in turn, called Mr. Loftis, the supervising broker for 757 Realty, where Mr. Miller was an agent, for instructions.
As Dr. Baxter was getting ready to go to bed at a hotel in Virginia Beach that evening, she received a phone call from Mr. Loftis.
She turned on the speakerphone so that Dr. Gamble, who was doing research in the hotel room at the time of the call, could hear the conversation.
“I kind of fell back in my chair,” Dr. Gamble said. “I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. After the Civil Rights movement, after Covid, after George Floyd, you would think that society no longer thinks this way. But in 2024, they still are.”
In a series of emails and calls over the next 24 hours received and recorded by Dr. Baxter and reviewed by The New York Times, Mr. Miller and Mr. Loftis expressed shock at the turn of events and sympathized with Tien Doctor Baxter. They also assured her that the sale would take place regardless of the seller’s wishes.
They did not immediately provide guidance on how Dr. Baxter could legally defend himself or file a discrimination complaint under the Fair Housing Act. Representatives from both HUD and the National Fair Housing Coalition advised that this should have been their first step.
Dr. Baxter turned to social media shortly after midnight on Saturday. She appeared defiant, ending her post with: “Honey, I will buy your house or buy YOUR BLOCK. SELECT ONE.”
‘We handled this’
A few hours later, Mr. Loftis wrote an email to Dr. Baxter. “It’s a pity that the seller stepped forward to give Race away [sic] participate in the process,” he wrote. “It seems like the seller’s children have turned her around. Although this is an unfortunate incident, hopefully your purchases will get back on track.”
Mr. Miller called Dr. Baxter, who said she was afraid she would lose her home. During that conversation, he encouraged her to sign an addendum eliminating the inspection contingency, releasing the seller from any obligation to repair the house, even though the home inspection revealed that the air conditioning system was defective. Over 30 years old and in need of upgrading. . Two days later, at Mr. Loftis’s direction, Mr. Miller sent Dr. Baxter an email with a link to Virginia’s fair housing complaint form.
In an email, Jay Mitchell, supervising broker at Berkshire Hathaway RW Towne Realty, wrote that neither party withdrew from the transaction. “As a company, we condemn any form of discrimination regardless of origin or target. All of our agents and staff are fully trained in awareness of discrimination in its many forms,” he said. He refused to answer further questions.
A spokesperson for Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, the residential real estate company owned by Warren E. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Energy, said RW Towne Realty is an independently owned and operated company that licenses only the name Berkshire Hathaway.
“Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices and its parent company, HomeServices of America, strictly comply with the Fair Housing Act and do not tolerate discrimination of any kind,” she added.
Shortly after The New York Times contacted Mr. Mitchell, Dr. Baxter received an email from Barbara Wolcott, chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway RW Towne Realty.
“In light of our seller’s horrendous missteps, I feel compelled to send you this email,” she wrote. “Please be assured that this individual’s attitude is not one that would be tolerated by Berkshire Hathaway RW Towne Realty, Susan Pender or anyone in our organization or region.”
When reached by phone and asked why Berkshire Hathaway RW Towne Realty did not condone the seller’s actions, Ms. Wolcott said: “We handled this. All you need to know is it was fixed the next day” and refused to answer further questions.
The sale of Dr. Baxter’s home is still expected to close later this summer. But even if the deal goes through, her rights under the Fair Housing Act are still likely to be violated, said Brenda Castañeda, deputy director of advocacy for HOME of VA, a nonprofit that supports homeless people. Virginians believe they have experienced housing discrimination, said. The law requires real estate agents not to discriminate, which means they must inform sellers who insist on acting without bias that they will not represent them and recuse themselves. Buy and sell if the seller does not agree. But there are many other ways that discrimination can take place.
“I don’t know that you can cure discrimination just by changing your mind and doing this deal,” Ms. Castañeda said, adding that the actions of both real estate agents Both sides may also be in violation. “That person may suffer damages because they have lost their civil rights and suffered from receiving a discriminatory statement.”
She added: “Dr. Baxter suffered harm whether or not the transaction was successful. We just want this to be a wake-up call for everyone.”
