VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — The sale of a condo in Virginia Beach became complicated after the prospective homebuyer's race became known to the seller, realtors close to the situation tell 13News Now.
"My real estate agent's BROKER just called me at 9pm on a Friday to tell me that the seller doesn't want to sell a house to me because I am BLACK. This is after the inspection, contract agreement, down payment. Baby, I'm either buying your house or buying YOUR BLOCK. CHOOSE ONE."
On May 31, The New York Times published an article detailing how Dr. Baxter, a Black woman, put an offer on a condo at the Oceanfront and how the seller, an older white woman, attempted to pull out of the deal after learning of her race.
Dr. Baxter, who is a molecular biologist and science educator, landed on Forbes' 30 Under 30 list in 2022. She has a social media following of more than 100,000 on X, formerly known as Twitter. Her post about the condo deal has now reached more than 11 million people, and garnered more than 140,000 likes and close to 10,000 reposts.
The property in question is nestled between the Old Beach and North End neighborhoods near the Virginia Beach Oceanfront.
Rob Resh, of 757 Realty, told 13News Now that his team was contacted by Dr. Baxter on the week of May 6 to help her find a home in the Virginia Beach area. Soon afterwards, they did a virtual tour of the home for Dr. Baxter, who then had Resh's team draft an offer for the property.
Around the time they were drafting a request for the seller to make some repairs and additions to the property before the sale, including a new air conditioning unit, a broker with 757 Realty received an unexpected update from the listing agent for the home on Friday, May 17.
"When he made that call to the listing agent at Berkshire Hathaway, she said ‘Hold on a minute [broker] there is something I need to share with you. She said ‘My client has said to me, you might want to wait to send any request over in a paper form, to ask for anything, because my client has relayed it to me she does not want to sell the house to your client because she is black," Resh said.
Public records show the homeowner of the property is a woman named Jane Walker.
A woman who answered the door at the home did not wish to provide comment for this story.
Listing agents for the property did not return communication to 13News Now for this story.
According to Resh, his team advised Dr. Baxter to look into support from the Virginia Fair Housing Office, which could not confirm or deny to 13News Now the existence of an active investigation into the matter.
However, a spokesperson for the Department of Professional & Occupational Regulation, did share that in the 2024 fiscal year, the Virginia Fair Housing Office had investigated 316 complaints across the state. Of those 316, about 20% occurred in the Tidewater region.
"Discriminatory action was most often reported under the protected classes of disability, race, or sex," said communications manager John Robertson IV.
"Virginia's Fair Housing Law makes it illegal to discriminate in residential housing on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, elderliness, familial status, disability, source of funds, sexual orientation, gender identity, or military status."
Resh added that Dr. Baxter, who is a client of 757 Realty, is still pursuing the condo sale.
"[Dr. Baxter] said to [broker], 'I don’t want to ask for all these things. I want the property and I’m afraid I’ll lose it if I ask for anything,'" he said.
Both sides are still aiming for a sale completion by this August, Resh said.
"We were very concerned about Dr. Baxter," he said.
"I said to her, 'This is awful and at the end of the day here, you have control, we’re here for you, you have control, and if you want to terminate this transaction, just let us know. But I said I know this is a terrible situation and you’re closing in August and you’ve got to deal with this for the next 3 months.”