Fair housing
The law, what it means for a seller, and what this product does about it.
Last reviewed
Not yet reviewed by counsel. This is placeholder wording. It has not been reviewed by an attorney and is not the agreement that will govern your use of the product. Final terms will be published before launch.
The rule
It is unlawful to refuse to sell, to set different terms, or to advertise a preference based on race, colour, religion, sex, disability, familial status or national origin. Many states and cities protect further characteristics. This applies to you as a seller, not only to agents.
What that means in practice
Most fair housing problems are not deliberate. They come from describing the people a home would suit rather than the home itself, or from acting on information nobody should have given you.
- Describe the property, never the buyer. "Four bedrooms" is a fact; "perfect for a young family" is a preference about familial status.
- Avoid describing the neighbourhood in terms of who lives there.
- Apply the same showing rules, the same responses and the same terms to everyone.
What the product does
Your public remarks are screened for phrases that commonly indicate a preference, and flagged before publication with an explanation rather than a silent rejection.
Buyer letters, the personal notes buyers sometimes attach to an offer. Are not shown to you. They routinely contain information about familial status, religion or national origin, and a seller who has read one cannot prove they did not act on it. You are told a letter arrived; you are not shown it.
The pricing estimate cannot use protected-class data or proxies for it. Those inputs are structurally absent, not filtered out later.