Is This Racist or "Pragmatic"?

[Jake Kucheck]

In my retail practice, I kinda enjoy it when I show homes being offerred by another flipper. Gives me a chance to critique their work, and sometimes pick up a thing or two about what fixtures are "in", what staging should be used, what flooring the competition is going with, etc. Rarely does it turn into a borderline offensive experience. This time it did.

After showing a property that was being offered by a well known local flipper, I made a "feeler" call to the agent. After swapping some flipping war stories (he is their exclusive agent for that zip code and a few surrounding it), we got down to brass tax. He then said something I couldn't believe he actually said, given all the rules about redlining, fair housing, etc.

Other Agent: So basically, what I'm saying is, if you can get your buyers up to $XXX,000, I'm happy to push your offer to the front of the line. It would be great to see some red blooded Americans stepping up as homeowners, and I'd love for you to get paid instead of one of these idiots that doesn't speak english.

Me: Uhhh... Ok I'll see what I can do. Gotta go.

Wow. I'm usually ready for anything when talking to another agent, but this took me by surprise. While I agree it is difficult enough to communicate with a lot of agents even when the same language is being spoken, and I too would want to eliminate that obstacle if possible, I think his statement goes beyond something I'm OK with.

Now don't get me wrong... I'm not here to try and singlehandedly end racism, I'm not that naive. I am however a zealous defender of real estate investing, and behavior like this would almost certainly give flipping a bad name.

So, BP Community... what (if anything) is to be done here?