Crossposted at Equality Loudoun
Can you imagine if a Loudoun Realtor were to argue
that they were helping home buyers make an “informed decision” regarding their home purchase by mouthing derogatory slurs about African-Americans and Jews, and complaining that the local government has required desegregation? Because this is the equivalent of that. Professional Realtors have a code of ethics, in part, due to awareness of how such bigotry has been practiced in the past.
Vivianne Rutkowski is a Realtor with Keller Williams on Catoctin Circle in Leesburg. I have contact information for her Broker and Regional Director, but I don’t want to publish it here. Contact me offline if you wish to communicate with them regarding this matter. Miss Rutkowski is bound by the code of ethics adopted by the National Association of Realtors.
I stumbled by accident across this wildly inappropriate, offensive post (it’s captured as it appeared Wednesday, January 25 at approximately 12:45 am) on her professional real estate business blog. I left a comment indicating that I would make sure no one I know would ever use her as an agent, and telling her why. Here are some screenshots of what she thought was appropriate content for a blog on which she presents herself to the public as a Realtor:
Can you believe the slurs and misgendering of trans people? It could have come right out of a Delgaudio hate mail. It’s also worth noting that this Realtor is a member of the Dulles Area Association of Realtors, a local organization flagged here as an unusual political outlier among associations. Can you even imagine a professional Realtor using such defamatory language about any other minority group and getting away with it? Trans people are a valuable part of this community, Miss Rutkowski. I suggest you get used to it.
Did she actually just express the assumption, as if it’s self-evident, that equal employment opportunity for LGBT people is incompatible with raising children? I guess the numerous LGBT families who moved here to raise children – not to mention the LGBT children of her straight clients – didn’t occur to her. And here’s one from her very long and ALL CAPS filled response to me, in which she tries to justify her expression of blatant prejudice:
First of all, if her blog was in fact “strictly about REAL ESTATE,” it obviously wouldn’t include a post with the title “Loudoun County in Virginia going Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender” consisting of nothing but ignorant slurs about gay, lesbian and transgender community members.
And can you imagine if a Loudoun Realtor were to argue in 2010 that they were helping home buyers make an “INFORMED decision” regarding their home purchase by mouthing derogatory slurs about African-Americans and Jews, and complaining that the local government has required desegregation? Because this is the equivalent of that. Professional Realtors have a code of ethics, in part, due to awareness of how such bigotry has been practiced in the past.
I would have accepted an apology from this woman on behalf of the community members she insulted before she wrote that.
Go sit in the corner, Miss Rutkowski. You screwed up.
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Thanks, LA. I don’t want to say more than I can confirm at this time, but readers should know that ethics charges have been brought against Ms. Rutkowski with her local Board of Realtors pursuant to the National Association of Realtors Code of Ethics, and Keller Williams considers this to be a very serious matter.
Well that is pretty darn outrageous. If she hadn’t have taken it down I would have posted something on TC about it. Good job calling her out.
David, any person can file an ethics complaint against any realtor. You don.t have to be directly connected to a transaction or a direct victim of the violation. You file it with the assoc the realtor belongs to. There is no cost to file a complaint. Imagine if delgaloidio had to live up to the same standard.
Thank you both for sharing that information. Yes, even though this didn’t involve a specific property transaction, it appears to be a violation of the code of ethics because it’s a communication with customers and prospects. There’s also language in the code about “practices which may damage the public or which might discredit or bring dishonor to the real estate profession,” so there would be more than one violation. In addition to that, there is deceit; Ms. Rutkowski attempted to cover up the evidence, and to create the impression that she’s a victim, by silently altering the content of her post and comments.
To the credit of DAAR, they did thank us for bringing this to their attention, and informed us that the post was taken down after she got a call from her broker. I’ve heard from quite a few other Realtors and agents who are appalled by her behavior. One commenter at Equality Loudoun shares that some prospects try to ask about the “character” of an area, but as an agent, you just don’t do that. It’s stunning that she thought it was defensible to talk about people that way.
Jonathon or David, it is a violation of the National Association of Realtors Code of Ethics to have posted this or had this posted online after the policy was changed. NAR includes sexual orientation as protected under its code of ethics effective 2011. I hope this helps….
http://realtormag.realtor.org/law-and-ethics/ethics/article/2011/01/code-meets-today-s-realities
The list of duties of Realtors(tm) on the Realtors(tm) web site strictly mentions that they are not to discuss the demographics of an area with clients. (Because that kind of discussion in the past surely led to a lot of real discrimination in terms of “the character of a neighborhood” if you know what I mean.) She sure does seem to be discussing the demographics of an area with at least prospective clients. Bad girl! Hope she loses her Realtor(tm) designation over it. She ought to.