Working With Clients With Disabilities

“In working with several clients with special needs, I realized many were thankful to work with someone who had experience with and an understanding of special needs,” Realtor® and speaker John Young says.

Since becoming a parent to his own nonverbal daughter with autism, Young has grown more sensitive to the way both she and other people with disabilities are perceived by others in the world. As a Realtor®, he began realizing that he was running into more clients with disabilities.

“One in four people in the United States identify as having a disability,” he says. “The law of averages guarantees you will run into someone in real estate with a disability.”

While some real estate agents may see these clients as an added difficulty to an already challenging job, Young is passionate about encouraging other real estate professionals to learn from, empathize with and help those with disabilities who are looking to buy a home.

“It’s not that people don’t want to do the right thing,” he says of agents who may hesitate to work with clients who have disabilities. “It’s that they don’t understand what the right thing is.”

Homebuyers with disabilities often face discrimination in the real estate industry, and Young has found that those he has helped have been appreciative of the time he’s taken to work with them and advise them as he would any other client. He believes in educating other Realtors® on how to best work with them in order to help eliminate discrimination and allow all people equal homebuying opportunities.

“We are changemakers in people’s lives,” Young says of Realtors®. “Clients count on us to do the right things. If you help instruct others, do it right and take it seriously, it goes a long way.”

Young is speaking at a session at this year’s Triple Play Realtor® Convention and Trade Expo titled “’The Do’s and Don’ts of Working with Special Needs Clients.” During the session, he will speak about things to avoid doing and things to do when working with clients with disabilities. Part of his presentation will also include a Zoom interview with a Realtor® with a disability.

The session will be held Dec. 5 from 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. You can register for Triple Play online.