Yesterday morning I called the broker’s wife, who was my original point of contact. She said someone else has already submitted a rental application. (This person looked at the apartment before me, if that matters.)
I said: “But I told your husband to call me if anyone else was even close to submitting any paperwork.”
She said: “Oh, he didn’t tell me that.” The deal still isn’t final; she promised to call me in the next few days if for some reason it doesn’t go through.
Both Crayton and I took this as a sign that the apartment wasn’t right for us — we haven’t spoke to the owner, and we’re not going to fight for a place that has already made us feel weird, before we’ve even moved in. So, this morning I called the Roma apartment broker and told her we’ll take it. Just waiting on a confirmation back.
I really, really appreciate everyone’s thoughtful comments on this whole situation. Even if the apartment hadn’t been taken, we would’ve made it known that the broker’s comments made us uncomfortable (even if recognizing housing discrimination is an Americanism, it’s worth mentioning to people who are courting foreigners as clients), and we would’ve definitely made sure that the Korean family wasn’t being bumped out of line because of us. In the end we weren’t willing to take the apartment and ignore the other factors.
Anyway: thanks, again.
Your experience was an eye opener for me. We move to Mexico (or another country) and bring our home values with us, thinking things will operate the way we are used to them operating, or the way we think they should operate. And then we are affronted when this is not the case.
I have learned that Mexico City does not have anti-discrimination laws regarding rentals, and probably regarding a lot of other things. There was a time when the U.S. did not have anti-discrimination laws, either. It took thousands of people years of speaking up (and some of them getting physically threatened and/or injured because of their stands) before anti-discrimination laws were enacted.
Someday, Mexico will laws on the books that prohibit rental discrimination. When that day comes, it will be because a lot of people in Mexico took a stand and called unethical brokers and owners on their attitudes, just like Crayton did.
Someone asked, “Would you rather be right, or would you rather be happy?” I could not be happy with myself, if I took the easy way out and kept quiet. Right and happy do not need to preclude the other.