Fair Housing Rule & Resources
MLSListings' rules were amended to add a mandatory section from the National Association of REALTORS' MLS policy.
This is the section with NAR's requirement:
12.5.3 Remarks - Listing Content and Fair Housing Laws
All listing information, including all remarks, submitted to the MLS must be in compliance with fair housing laws. The MLS monitors listing content and employs a process for identifying potential violations of fair housing laws. Should potential fair housing law violations be identified, Participants and Subscribers will be advised to immediately remove or correct such potential violations. Failure to remove or correct may subject Participants and Subscribers to discipline and/or subject the listing to immediate removal from display"
This rule goes into effect immediately and the MLSListings Compliance department has already implemented checks for language which would violate state and federal law.
The law protects people in these classes from discrimination in housing and provides equal opportunity to buy or rent, free from bias for race, national origin, sex, age, religion, familial status and physical ability
Please note that we have not yet published an advisory list of words or phrases to use or avoid. There are many "word lists" available on the web which may help with your advertising language, but none currently published by the federal or state fair housing authority. MLSListings will produce a helpful guide in the near future. A good practice is, if you feel you need to check if a word or phrase is OK to use, you should not use it.
Best rule of thumb is: Always describe the property and not the buyer.
Here are some resources to help us all learn how to stay in compliance with fair housing and equal opportunity advertising: