Questions brokers can't answer...

Nice overview piece regarding public housing laws. Just a friendly reminder to know your "protected" classes. Be careful what you put in writing, most importantly. Also, beware of a lot of the not-for-profit housing groups who are putting out "test" clients just looking for discrimination.

The strict interpretation of fair-housing laws prohibits brokers from providing information about people that could be construed as discriminatory in any of 14 protected categories. The categories include familiar ones like race, religion, sex and disabilities and less well-known ones like familial status, marital status, citizenship and occupation.