Bobbi Howe
By Bobbi Howe
This week, the Census Bureau started going door-to-door to follow up with households that did not return their Census form. If you have a vacant listing, chances are good that you will receive a call from a Census worker. The process is simple and only requires a couple minutes of your time.
First, the Census worker will want to know if the home has been vacant since April 3, 2010. If not, they will want the owner’s phone number so they contact the owner directly to do more follow-up. However, if the home has been vacant since then, they will want to verify your name, phone number, and work address. That’s it. It really is that simple.
I’ve received five calls this week from different Census workers on my listings and have never been on the phone more than 60 seconds. It’s worth taking that brief amount of time out of your day to help make sure that no households are missed. Here is more information about the door-to-door visits.
Bobbi Howe is a second-generation practitioner with Coldwell Banker General Properties in St. Joseph, Mo. She currently serves as outreach chair on the YPN Advisory Board and co-founded the Missouri YPN chapter. @bobbihowe
Comments 3
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As a census worker, I thank most of you Realtor for making my job easier. But, there have been a few rude realtors out there. I just had one Ebby Halliday realtor that sold a 500K+ plus house. Did not return my calls and said it was not her job to help the census. “Take me off you list” as if I was some telemarketer.
Look, you Realtors advertise that you are suppose to help a client out, correct. And a client selling a house might be too busy to fill out the census, so does it not make sense to give the information that you know to the census worker. I when down to her/his realtor office and still “nope not my job.”
We can take “proxies” from neighbors and realtors. The number of people in a house on April 1, 2010 that normally live there is the minimum information we look for. Even better names, relationship (wife, son), age, sex, own with mortgage, own free and clear. That is about it.
The larger the amount of people counted in an area can mean more federal funding roads, libraries and maybe an extra congressman. (Although, I don’t know if that is a good thing).
Just my thoughts. I don’t think I will be recommending Ebby Halliday any time soon.
And one more thing, most of the census workers are just unemployed/ under-employed or retired people in your community. Personally, I would ask us down to the office and ask to see our badge. Then give any information you know and give us your card. You never know, maybe a future client.
Realtors have a duty to ask the owner before making any such disclosures. It is a fiduciary duty.