Fair Housing Rule Adopted
This is the rule:
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.
What this means is the MLSListings is now required to:
- Verify that all listing information, including all remarks, is compliant with fair housing laws
- Monitor listing content and identify potential violations of fair housing laws
If potential Fair Housing violations are found, the MLS will advise agents and brokers to immediately remove or correct such potential violations.
Failure to remove or correct may subject users to discipline and/or subject the listing to immediate removal from display. If content is objectionable on face value, the MLS may remove content directly.
The MLS will take action on clear and blatant discrimination of federally protected classes:
- Race, national origin, gender, familial status, age, religion, physical abilities
- Example: “No children”, “Younger tenant preferred”, or discriminatory references to race and gender or other protected classes.
Do’s and Don’t
X Don’t describe your “ideal” buyer or renter, focus on the property
X Don’t make statements or use photos that have the effect of excluding individuals of a protected
class from your advertising
üDo use broad based advertising platforms like the MLS to reach all potential qualified buyers
The following additional resources are available to provide guidance and education for Equal Opportunity and Fair Housing standards and practices for real estate agents:
www.hud.gov
www.nar.realtor
www.car.org