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The Baltimore couple and Johns Hopkins University professor Ph.D. Shani Mott and Nathan Connolly made headlines Monday as they concluded their two-year legal battle with California mortgage giant LoanDepot over discriminatory appraisal practices.
The settlement includes an undisclosed monetary award and an extensive program from LoanDepot aimed at mitigating any discrimination homeowners may face during the appraisal process through more than a dozen new policies. LoanDepot said the settlement was not an “admission of wrongdoing.”
“No one has done this before in terms of reconsidering value,” the couple’s attorney, John Relman, told reporters. New York Times on Monday. “Nathan and Shani are eager to find best practices that others can follow. To their credit, loanDepot is willing to not just talk the talk, but walk the walk.”
Shani Mott | Image source: Johns Hopkins University
The couple’s victory was bittersweet, as Mott died of an adrenaline attack 10 days before the settlement agreement was to be filed.according to she New York Times obituaryMott spent her last days Retelling the Challenge She and Connolly faced this problem in 2021 when they tried to refinance their mortgage through LoanDepot.
Appraiser Shane Lanham valued their home at $472,000, which the couple said was $75,000 less than the conservative estimate cited by their loan officer. Lanham’s valuation led the loan warehouse to reject the couple’s application.
Questioning Lanham’s judgment, the couple dug into his past, which included a list of allegations of alleged discrimination by black homeowners in Baltimore, one of which drew the attention of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The couple submitted their findings to Loan Warehouse, but they refused to reconsider their refinancing request.
In 2022, they refinanced their home through another lender; only they removed all evidence of their ethnic background (such as photos, artwork, and other cultural markers) from the home and hired a White friends instead. The estimate was $750,000, a 58% increase from Lanham’s estimate.
Nathan Connolly
“She burned out two oxygen tanks and was in a wheelchair,” Dr. Connolly told Now.
He said Mott refused to take painkillers during her eight hours of testimony so as not to prevent her from expressing the seriousness of the lawsuit and what it meant not only to them, but to dozens of other homeowners of color.
He added: “Her ability to speak powerfully, directly and, frankly, very clearly about how real estate works, particularly the tools that go into structuring a mortgage transaction, was a master class.”
Appraiser Shane Lanham said he had no plans to settle and expected he and his family to be charged. defamation counterclaim Go to trial.
Lanham’s lawyer said his assessment was based on “market conditions that existed at the time.” As for the second appraisal, they said it was higher because it took into account “home sales that had not even occurred at the time of the appraisal by Mr. Lanham and 20/20 Valuations.”
“You may or may not have heard, but I have been wrongly accused of intentionally assigning lower values to homes in Baltimore City because of the race of the owners,” Lanham said in His GoFundMe page is set up to cover attorney fees.. “I am confident that I am not the person identified in this lawsuit or the major media outlets reporting on this situation, and I am confident in the evaluation that I completed.”
Not the first, nor the last
PhD. Mott and Connolly are yet another chapter in the long history of Black homeowners and landowners fighting for housing equality in their final days.
Hilton Head landowner Josephine Wright spent the last few years of her life fighting developer Bailey Point Investment. The company hopes to build a 147-home community on land that has been owned by the Wright family since the end of the Civil War.
Bailey Point Investment offered to buy the land, but when Wright refused, they sued the then 92-year-old woman for title.Wright’s family started to fund me The company made more than $365,000 in revenue and was invited by entertainment mogul Tyler Perry to build Wright a new home.
Wright died in January at the age of 94about two months Before settling at Bailey’s Point. The developer promised never to contact the Wrights and agreed to build a privacy fence between the development and the Wright family’s land.
“The family is pleased to have reached a settlement,” said family spokesman Altimese Nichole. south carolina public radio. “They are committed to preserving the legacy of Mrs. Josephine Wright.”
Dr. Lee Davenport
Dr. Lee Davenport, a noted real estate coach and fair housing advocate, said the experiences of Mott, Connolly and Wright are a reminder of how far America has come and how far we still have to go when it comes to fair housing.
“Unfortunately, there are a lot of these stories in the news this week and even this month,” Davenport told Inman on Wednesday. “Look at one of the survivors of the Black Wall Street race riots in Tulsa; (Viola Ford Fletcher) is over 100 years old, but she’s still fighting for what she lost as a child.”
While the stories of these black homeowners are outrageous, Davenport said it’s important to remember that 56 years ago, Mott, Connolly and Wright had no legal basis to fight unfair assessments or block developers expropriate their land.
“At the beginning of (Wright and Fletcher’s) lives, there wasn’t even a law to protect and protect their rights and property,” she said. “So, it’s great that we have laws that people can now point out and say, ‘What’s happening is not right.'”
Davenport said that while progress has been made, there is still much work to be done. She recalled a recent appraisal webinar where the presenter acknowledged problems within the industry, including resistance to the use of technology that could help appraisers provide accurate valuations and mitigate the risk of discrimination.
“They said, ‘We’re not doing it right, and unfortunately conservatives are resisting using some of the new technology features to help ensure fairness,'” she said. “It’s interesting to hear them say that. It’s like, okay, you guys do know this is a problem.”
Still, technology is not omnipotent because human biases have seeped into the algorithms.
“Garbage in, garbage out,” she said, echoing an adage she heard in computer science. “That’s why I encourage any real estate company or appraisal firm to develop and create these amazing tools, in partnership with their local fair housing center. They can test and retest. They can help us address these challenges.”
real estate agent stand up
While Mott and Connolly’s story focuses primarily on loan issues, Davenport said it presents a powerful opportunity for real estate agents to pick up the slack for clients years after the deal closes.
“Each of us should be a resource center. That’s our job. That’s what we do every day, right?” she said. “Consumers — other than those who are serious investors — may buy or sell a home every five to 15 years. That’s not enough for them to know what’s going on. What’s the latest? What’s going on.”
Davenport said real estate agents must do a better job of prioritizing fair housing rights and eliminating the discomfort that comes with talking about discrimination, racism and bias.
“Think about what these families are missing out on,” she said. “It’s not just about the money, it’s the fact that you have health issues and you’re paying for college. Those are the costs of housing and the added value we get from housing.”
“We also have to remember that when people don’t have fair housing, it affects everyone,” she said. “It affects the value of community property, it affects the cost of schooling because of the value of community property. It plays that role in everything.”
Email Marianne McPherson
