The Fair Housing Act’s protections are broad, and its penalties are significant, which may leave you feeling concerned about how you can best stay compliant with all of its provisions. The good news is that one simple rule can be applied to almost all of your practices to help you stay out of Fair Housing trouble.

What is this special key to compliance? Consistency.

In real estate, policies, procedures, and routines are your friends. The more that you can do to ensure that you are providing the same level of service to every consumer, the more you can prevent Fair Housing issues.

Below, we explore a few areas where you can create strong policies and procedures:

Initial consultation meetings are your opportunity to make a great first impression. But they are also an area where it can be easy to accidentally get yourself into trouble. When you’re getting started in real estate, one of the most important first steps is to determine your “pitch”— how are you going to convince the consumer to work with you instead of another licensee? Once you have figured that out, it’s time to make a routine.

Keep in mind that you could be interacting with a “tester,” a person who is paid to check if you provide different levels of service when working with people from various backgrounds. To avoid the appearance of discrimination, you’ll want to get into the habit of providing the same information in as close to the same way as possible every time you meet with a consumer. If it helps, you can even make a checklist to help guide your conversations, especially until you build habits.

Some things you’ll want to consider as you build an initial consultation meeting routine are: 

• Where will I meet with consumers?
• Will I offer the consumer any food or beverage?
• Will I offer to drive consumers anywhere or require that they drive? 
• What listing services do I want to be sure to highlight?
• When meeting with a prospective seller, what are the most important questions I need to ask?
• If a seller decides to list with me, what information do I need to give them in our first meeting?
• What buyers’ services do I want to be sure to highlight?
• When meeting with a prospective buyer, what are the most important questions I need to ask?
• Will I have any requirements for a consumer to work with me, such as a pre-listing inspection or proof of funding?  

Let’s face it, no matter how much a client or customer likes you, if something goes wrong with the Purchase Agreement, your relationship can sour in a hurry. Assisting a consumer with completing or negotiating a Purchase Agreement is one of the most crucial aspects of your job. Of course, the specific guidance that you provide will differ with every transaction, but the general topics you review should be similar among all of your clients.

Some things to consider:

• The way that you relay an offer to the seller can convey unintentional meaning. Try to notify the seller of offers in the same way every time, such as a text message with a scheduled time to talk on the phone, immediately forwarding the offer via email and asking the seller to call you with questions, etc.
• Try to have a standard way of explaining and discussing important Purchase Agreement terms. 
• Think about the questions you will need to ask a buyer to help them determine an initial offer amount. Relatedly, make sure the buyer gets an Estimated Closing Statement every time they make an offer or counteroffer, and be sure to have a routine for explaining the document. 
• Think about how you will help sellers review an initial offer to purchase. What pieces of information are important for them to see first? What steps will you take to encourage the seller to read all parts of the contract before responding? If the seller needs an attorney, how are you going to handle that conversation? 
• How will you help the seller navigate multiple offers?

Rental application procedures are another major potential source of Fair Housing violations. Remember, even if you have good intentions, giving different consumers different treatment can look like discrimination to an observer. If you are a property manager, you need to have clear guidelines for the steps and documentation required to submit a rental application, as well as the criteria to be eligible to rent. Perhaps even more importantly, you must follow those guidelines and criteria every single time. Topics to consider are:

• Will you allow tenants with a criminal background? If so, have a clear policy. Do you allow those with misdemeanor backgrounds only, or also felony backgrounds? Are there any specific prohibited types of crimes, like crimes of violence? Once you determine a policy, have a standard way of explaining the policy to prospective tenants. Encourage all prospective tenants to apply if they desire. 
• What forms of identification will you require?
• What will be your minimum eligibility criteria? 
• What will be your process for accommodating disability-related requests?

Remember, these areas are just a starting point – you can set yourself apart to consumers by applying these same concepts to other areas of your business.