Episode Details

It's April, which means it's fair housing month, and this year we brought in a guest to help us do it right. Molly Mair is a broker-owner in Eugene, Oregon and a genuine fair housing advocate, serving on her state association's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee as chair. We met her at a conference (she brought us the sweetest gifts) and knew we had to have her on, especially since every April we've talked ourselves out of covering this topic for fear of saying the wrong thing.

Molly walks us through how she became an advocate almost by accident, starting with a trans client whose "dead name" was mishandled by an escrow agent who had no idea how to navigate it. That one experience changed how she runs her buyer consultations completely, from asking pronouns upfront to coaching lenders and title companies ahead of time so clients never feel mishandled. We get into where realtors most often go wrong (hint: it's usually the well-meaning "this is such a good neighborhood" comments, not anything malicious), why sticking to facts and data protects you legally and ethically, and a real story about a fair housing complaint Alissa faced during Covid and how a simple spreadsheet made it disappear immediately.

We also talk through Molly's own mistakes along the way, because leaning into discomfort (and sometimes looking a little silly) is part of actually growing as an advocate, not a reason to avoid the conversation altogether.

Here's what we cover in this episode: -How one client's mishandled name change became the moment Molly became a fair housing advocate -What a "dead name" is and why getting it wrong can seriously harm a client's experience -Why coaching lenders and title companies ahead of time protects clients from awkward moments -Why talking about "good" or "bad" neighborhoods and schools is one of the biggest everyday fair housing missteps -Being the "source of the source" instead of steering clients toward your own opinion -Why sticking to market data and facts protects both you and your client -A real story about a fair housing complaint Alissa faced during Covid, and how a documented spreadsheet resolved it instantly -Why treating every single client and transaction identically is your best protection -How to handle a seller who makes a joking (but inappropriate) comment about a buyer -Why having a written fair housing statement in your buyer and seller packets matters -Grants available through NAR for local fair housing education events -Molly's own honest stories of getting it wrong, and why grace and reflection matter more than perfection -Why "sweaty palms" during a fair housing conversation is actually your sign to lean in, not away -Resources for learning more: implicit bias tests, Fair Housing 2.0, and recommended books

Key quotes from this episode: "Sweaty palms? That's your sign to lean in." - Katy "People can't dispute a spreadsheet. Be consistent and treat every transaction the same." - Alissa "If you want to break the rules, you won't be breaking them with me." - Molly Mair "I'm not a DEI expert, but I'm an advocate, and that means I keep showing up and learning." - Molly Mair "What do we lose by including more people? Nothing. We just make the table bigger." - Molly Mair

Products, people, and previous episodes mentioned: -Molly Mair, broker-owner in Eugene, Oregon and Diversity Key Committee Chair for Oregon Realtors -So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo -Fair Housing 2.0 course -At Home With Diversity course -Bias Override training -The Vanport Flood documentary (Oregon Realtors YouTube) -Hustle Humbly Trello video

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