Barbara Ciment, Long and Foster Real Estate, Inc

Barbara and Mel were outstanding for us. They spent years (literally) showing us innumerable homes until we found the perfect home for us. They never pressured us to buy anything, and seemed perfectly happy to wait as long as it took. They gave us outstanding advice on pricing, areas, characteristics of homes. When we found the perfect house for us, they moved quickly and got us the house despite significant interest from many families, and somehow managed to negotiate a price less than we thought possible. They were pleasant, friendly, professional throughout. They answered a million of our questions and made us feel comfortable through the whole process. We could not have had a better experience. Side note: there is another reviewer here who gave them an "F" because Mel tried to explain, accurately, that you could save over $50,000 by getting an identical house a few blocks away from the local synagogue, since there is intense housing competition to be close to the synagogue. In my opinion, that's great advice for someone who has no reason to live near a synagogue, and I cannot understand the complaint. Note that Barbara and Mel make less money if they sell you a cheaper house, so this is a case where they put the customers interests above their own, a rare and very desirable characteristic.

Steering is an unlawful practice and includes any words or actions by a real estate sales representative or Broker that are intended to influence the choice of a prospective buyer or tenant. Steering violates federal fair housing provisions that proscribe discrimination in the sale or rental of housing. Based on Mel Ciment's disturbing comments to me during this showing, he seems to be steering those he believes are not Jews away from this property and neighborhood . That is, the neighborhood within a one mile radius of the Kemp Mill Synagogue. When I first phoned the listing agent, Barbara Ciment, about the Stonington Rd. house, she asked if I was represented by an agent and my answer was "No". I never asked Mel or Barbara Ciment about the demographics of the neighborhood, or about religious institutions. The only housing criteria that I communicated to Mr. Ciment was that I wanted to be near Brookside Gardens and parkland, and that I wanted to downsize and the Stonington Rd. house met these criteria. During the house showing Mr. Ciment informed me unsolicited that the Orthodox Jewish synagogue, Kemp Mill, is just down the street, and that orthodox Jews must be within one mile of this synagogue in order to walk to it. He then proceeded to take me on a tour of the neighborhood identifying only Jewish households on the street, which were numerous. My only comments during this tour were on the house structures themselves both favorable including the adjacent homes and unfavorable in the case of an enormous house further down the street. He informed me near the end of this tour that this is not the right neighborhood for me, and he repeated this statement again upon our return back to Stonington Road. He also told me that he and his wife Barbara would keep my contact details, and that advise me of homes outside the one mile area from the synagogue when they came on the market. It is illegal and a violation of the code of ethics for a realtor to even mention a religious institution without a prospective buyer first requesting information on such institutions. When I later confronted Mr. Ciment with his comments, he communicated to me that he was sorry I misinterpreted his remarks about the market in Springbrook Forest, and was trying to explain why the same house located deeper inside Springbrook Forest would not command such a high price as the Stonington Rd. house, given its proximity to the synagogue. However, the price of the Stonington Rd. house actually was attractive to me, especially given housing prices in the neighborhood where I currently live, and I never asked to be shown less expensive homes. To report problems with this Realtor go to the REAL ESTATE COMMISSION tel. 410-230-6230 at https://www.dllr.state.md.us/cgi-bin/ElectronicLicensing/CIPS/complaintform1.cgi?board=11&lib=DLLR