How Accessible Is the American Dream for the Disabled?

By Jordan Grice

Homebuying can be a frustrating experience for buyers. It can be even more discouraging when clients feel like an agent doesn’t understand their needs.

Real estate professionals suggest that this may be the case for thousands, even millions, of people looking to enter the market with some form of disability.

With 61 million adults—roughly 1 in 4—living with a physical or cognitive disability in the U.S., based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, real estate professionals indicate that this is an underserved demographic.

“The vast majority of real estate agents don’t understand physical or mental and cognitive disability in a way that optimizes the service level to the client,” says California-based agent Stephen Beard of Keller Williams Oakland.

That was a realization he encountered firsthand nearly two decades ago when looking for his first home.

Beard, who has cerebral palsy and uses a cane for balance, remembers advocating for himself because the buyer’s agents weren’t knowledgeable about accessibility needs.

Since launching his real estate career 17 years ago, Beard has leveraged his experience and knowledge of the accessibility issues in real estate to serve disabled clients and their families. Changing Perceptions Jackie Roth is an associate broker with Corcoran Real Estate in New York. For the past 16 years, she hasn’t let the fact that she is deaf define her in life as well as her real estate profession.

Instead, she uses her background to help others work with and advocate for the deaf.

“Change needs to start within the brokerage community, and oftentimes the change comes with being human,” Roth says. “The real estate community as a whole needs to be willing to put in the work to create a pathway for communication so people of all backgrounds can work together seamlessly.”

While she suggests that formal courses focused on serving people with disabilities would be helpful, Roth says more education is needed.

She also notes that sensitivity and patience are essential.

“The best thing a broker can do for their client if they are disabled is to allow them the extra time to communicate,” Roth says.

Beard echoes similar sentiments, adding that he makes himself avail-

able to help colleagues and agents better understand the demographic of buyers. He also hosts a weekly podcast, Accessible Housing Matters, where he speaks with experts in accessible architecture and development and disability advocacy.

Jeff Shelton, broker and co-founder of Florida-based Hughes Shelton Group with Compass, says there needs to be a larger conversation around raising awareness and advocating for people with disabilities, especially when it comes to housing.

“Sometimes I just don’t think people think about others who aren’t like themselves,” says Shelton.

He is also the former chairman of the advisory board of Best Buddies, a volunteer movement dedicated to creating opportunities for integrated employment, leadership development and inclusive living for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).

Shelton points to his autistic nephew as the inspiration for his interest and involvement in Best Buddies. In his experience, Shelton suggests that people with disabilities aren’t “given a lot of respect or consideration” in the general purview of the real estate industry.

“I definitely think it’s underserved because the products are just not there,” he says. “If you are someone in a wheelchair, you are limited in the number of homes that you are going to look at.”

He attributes that partially to home building standards not requiring construction/development of homes to consider accessibility needs from the beginning.

In a past transaction, Shelton explains that he had a client who used a wheelchair who needed to compromise their expectations for a home location because of Florida building regulations regarding floodplains.

“This client wanted to look at new construction and to be in a particular area of town,” Shelton says. “Unfortunately, that wasn’t an option for them because there were no ramps for them to get into the house, and that is not a code requirement that builders must do.”

Understanding Accessibility Needs Pushing the needle forward between real estate professionals and their ability to offer quality service to disabled buyers will take a concerted effort.

“We need to stop treating people as if because they are disabled they are medically deficient or less than,” says Beard, who explains that he and his team conduct a detailed needs assessment of all their new clients dealing with a disability to help determine what they’ll need out of a home.

Another impediment to improving service for people with disabilities has been a disparity in data entry services for information about properties to help people find homes that meet their needs—a challenge that Washington-based broker Barry Long and his partner Tom Minty have been tackling.

As a real estate broker for Marketplace Sotheby’s International Realty and a former accessibility specialist, and a voting member of the Washington Building Code Council, Long has leveraged his expertise to change the paradigm of buying or selling a home for people with disabilities.

“All real estate is a series of data points,” says Long.

When he started his real estate career six years ago, he noticed that multiple listing services were missing a standardized set of data points with accessibility in mind to help brokers list properties appropriately.

That was the impetus of Long launching Able Environments in 2017 with Minty, a broker with John L. Scott Real Estate. The real estate business created the language and search criteria local REALTORS® use to buy and sell accessible homes.

Long also admits that eliminating stigmas attached to accessibility features and their impact on a listing presents another challenge.

Contrary to perceptions, Long asserts that accessibility doesn’t have to be a detriment to a home.

“It can be cool and super luxurious if you do it right,” he says. “It doesn’t have to be this stale, ugly devaluation of the home because it was an afterthought.”

Since developing the accessibility language and having it integrated into its local MLS—the Northwest MLS—Long indicates that adoption has been ticking up.

“What that means is that REALTORS® have used our form or checked the accessibility boxes saying that a home has some accessibility features,” says Long. “There are now close to 10,000 homes with accessibility features that are out there that if they go back on the market, somebody looking for them will be able to find them.”

Long also submitted that same taxonomy and accessibility language to the Real Estate Standards Organization (RESO), which was approved for use in MLSs nationwide. RE

“Change needs to start within the brokerage community, and oftentimes the change comes with being human.”

– JACKIE ROTH, Associate Broker, Corcoran Real Estate

Jordan Grice is RISMedia’s associate online editor. Email him your real estate news to jgrice@rismedia.com.