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Realtors and landlords urged to avoid steering, keep inclusive advertising and document screening
Summary
Felton advised landlords and realtors to avoid steering and to adopt consistent, documented screening and advertising practices to reduce fair-housing risk, citing examples where identical economic profiles received different property offers.
Felton cautioned that steering — directing prospective tenants to particular neighborhoods based on protected characteristics — remains illegal and is a common source of violations. She cited a news investigation (Long Island Divided) showing realtors giving different properties to clients with identical economic qualifications but different races, and urged local practitioners to rely on neutral, publicly available information when asked about schools or neighborhood attributes.
She recommended consistent screening policies (apply the same credit-check requirement to all applicants), inclusive advertising language, and careful documentation of how multiple offers are evaluated: "If we have multiple offers, we wanna document which offer we took and why," she said, noting paper is a landlord's friend in potential disputes.
