White Virginia Beach homeowner, 84, bans molecular biologist, Dr. Raven Baxter, from buying her $749,000 condo after finding out she is black.
A molecular biologist has claimed she was prevented from buying a Virginia Beach condo after the owner, a white woman, found out that she was black.
Dr. Raven Baxter, 30, was prepared to buy her ‘dream home’ after a virtual tour of the property. The property had everything she wanted: a private foyer, wainscoting, exquisite crown molding, and a marble fireplace.
Baxter offered the asking price, $749,000, which was promptly accepted by the seller. The molecular biologist, who works remotely for Mt. Sinai hospital, then sent over a down payment and the condo went into escrow.
But there was a catch.
Later that evening Baxter received a call from her broker who told her that the seller, Jane Walker, 84, wanted to back out of the deal.
Back out because…?
‘He said, “I don’t know how to tell you this, but she doesn’t want to sell the home to you, and it’s because you’re black,”‘ Baxter recalled.
Earlier that day, the biological scientist and her long-time boyfriend, Dr. Ronald Gamble Jr., a theoretical physicist who works for NASA, made the three-hour drive to the condo from their apartment in Alexandria, Va.
For the first time, the two scientists explored the property in person according to the dailymail.
When Baxter had previously toured the condo virtually, her camera had been off. Jane Walker, the seller, was unaware of her race.
After concluding their inspection of the property, which is near the beach and features a view of the Atlantic, they bumped into the seller.
As the couple prepared to leave, Walker appeared and her agent, Susan Pender of Berkshire Hathaway RW Towne Realty, introduced the two parties.
Moments after the scientists left, Baxter said Walker confronted her agent, telling her that she was not willing to sell her condo to a black person. Walker ordered Pender to terminate the sale.
Pender called Wayne Miller, an agent at 757 Realty, and informed him of the turn of events.
She Made an Offer on a Condo. Then the Seller Learned She Was Black. https://t.co/09vkKQuBYl #disgusting #racism
— minntrav (@minntrav) June 1, 2024
‘Baby, I’m either buying your house or buying YOUR BLOCK. CHOOSE ONE.’
Miller proceeded to contact Baxter’s agent, Bill Loftis, who called her with the troubling news.
Baxter was crushed to hear that the seller was reneging. She loved the condo.
‘It’s a classic home with a ton of character. It’s absolutely gorgeous and you can walk to the beach. It was like a steal,’ she said. ‘I basically put in an offer sight unseen,’ Baxter told the New York Times.
According to the condo’s Zillow page, the Georgian-style property was built in 1932.
Outfitted with a spiral staircase, gilded mirrors, chandeliers, and antique oil paintings, the Gone with the Wind-inspired property comes with three bedrooms and three bathrooms.
Baxter’s boyfriend was shocked to hear that the seller was backing out of the deal. When the molecular biologist received the call from her agent, she put it on speakerphone so that Gamble could hear the news.
‘I kind of fell back in my chair,’ he said.
‘I could not believe what I was hearing. Well after the Civil Rights movement, after Covid, after George Floyd, you would think society isn’t still thinking this way. But in 2024, they still are.’
Later that night, Baxter shared her story on X, where she has 163,000 followers.
She concluded her post by striking a note of defiance: ‘Baby, I’m either buying your house or buying YOUR BLOCK. CHOOSE ONE.’
Responded one commentator: ‘Dr. Raven, one of my biggest issues as I search for housing is this right here & we are just trying to rent! As soon as folks find out we are Black, the property has been rented. It’s exhausting. But I know you will get some kind of relief. THIS is how social media is done.’
So what does the law say?
Prompted by commenters on her post, Baxter filed a discrimination claim with the Virginia Fair Housing Office and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. She also contacted a civil rights lawyer.
‘Had I not gone to Twitter and received help from people who knew what they were doing, I would have been panicking the entire weekend,’ Baxter said
She added: ‘It was my first time buying a house. I knew my civil rights were being violated. I knew that something illegal was happening, but no one knew what to do.’
The next day, Loftis reached out to Baxter, telling her that while it was ‘unfortunate that the seller’ brought ‘race into the process,’ her kids were ‘able to turn her around.’
Dr. Baxter’s home sale remains set to close later this summer. But even if the deal goes through, her rights under the Fair Housing Act have still been potentially violated, said Brenda Castañeda, deputy director of advocacy for HOME of VA, a nonprofit that assists Virginians who believe they have experienced housing discrimination.
Social media responds
Real estate agents are required by law to not discriminate, which means they must inform sellers who insist on acting with prejudice that they will not represent them, and extricate themselves from a sale if the seller will not acquiesce.
And then there were these comments on the web that caught this author’s attention. See what you think?
‘It’s your property you can sell it to who you want to. People saying it’s illegal have no clue. Civil Right act or laws do not apply to someone selling personal property. Now if they go through a third party than that third party is bound by those laws.’
‘This type of racism happens all the time to black people, in all manner of daily transactions, but usually without the direct evidence. Racists in real estate transactions are able to discriminate against black home seekers in the first instance based on sight or a bit later in the process (i.e., after an offer has been made or rental application submitted) based on a quick google search.’
‘Imagine if there were no agents: then the seller probably gets away with it as there are no witnesses and the buyer doesn’t get the house that she wants.’
‘I am so sick of these stories and I don’t believe this for one minute. She’s just making this up and running on the news because she wants attention for being a “racism victim”.. which of course is all the rage nowadays. I want to hear the seller’s side of the story…!’
‘Buy the house — you’re giving your money to a racist. Don’t buy the house — they win!’
