Fair Housing

Our commitment

Equal Housing Opportunity. We are pledged to the letter and spirit of U.S. policy for the achievement of equal housing opportunity throughout the nation. We encourage and support an affirmative advertising and marketing programme in which there are no barriers to obtaining housing because of race, colour, religion, sex, handicap, familial status or national origin.

Every person who walks into this office is shown every home that fits what they told us they wanted, in every area, at every price they said they could pay. There is no version of that sentence with an exception in it.

What the law covers

The federal Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental and financing of housing on the basis of race, colour, religion, sex (including sexual orientation and gender identity), disability, familial status and national origin. North Carolina's own State Fair Housing Act mirrors those protections.

The Act prohibits more than refusing to deal with someone. It also prohibits:

• Steering — guiding buyers toward or away from areas on the basis of a protected characteristic, theirs or that of the people who live there.
• Discriminatory advertising — any statement or image in a listing that indicates a preference, limitation or discrimination.
• Differential service — showing fewer homes, offering less information, or applying different qualifying standards to different people.
• Blockbusting — inducing sales by suggesting that the composition of a neighbourhood is changing.

How that changes how we work

The most common question a brokerage is asked is “what is that neighbourhood like?”. The honest, lawful and genuinely more useful answer is a description of the housing and the infrastructure. So that is what you will find on every neighbourhood page on this site:

• What was built there and in which decade
• Typical lot sizes, street pattern and whether there are sidewalks
• Whether there is an HOA, what it costs and what it covers
• Distances and drive times to employment centres
• Parks, greenway access, public facilities and known infrastructure
• Which schools the district currently assigns

You will not find a single sentence describing the people who live anywhere. That is not squeamishness. Characterisations of who lives somewhere — even affectionate ones, even ones a buyer asked for — are precisely the mechanism by which housing segregation is reproduced, and a brokerage that offers them is doing harm regardless of intent.

We also maintain an internal list of words we do not use in listing or area copy, because they function as proxies: safe, family-friendly, exclusive, desirable area, up-and-coming, good part of town, the right kind of. If you find one on this site, it is a mistake and we would like to know.

Schools and attendance areas

We publish the base schools the district currently assigns to an address, by name, with a link to the district so you can verify it. We note that attendance areas are reassigned periodically and that an assignment can change before you close.

We do not rate, rank or compare schools, and we will not tell you which area has “better” ones. Aggregate school ratings correlate closely with the demographics of the surrounding attendance area, and using them to route buyers between neighbourhoods has been treated as a proxy for exactly the characteristics the Act protects. Look at the district's published data, visit the schools, and form your own view — that is a better process than ours would be anyway.

Advertising and this website

All listing copy, photography and marketing produced by Homestead describes property and objective location facts. Photographs of people are used to depict our own team and illustrative client stories, and are not intended to indicate any preference for or against any group of people in relation to any property or area.

The Equal Housing Opportunity notice and mark appear in the footer of every page of this site, and are deliberately excluded from the site's colour customization so that they cannot be restyled out of legibility.

Reasonable accommodation and modification

If you need any part of working with us adjusted — documents in another format, a different way to communicate, accessible arrangements for a viewing, or additional time — tell us and we will arrange it. You do not need to explain why, and there is no charge.

If you have a disability, you may also have the right to request reasonable modifications to a property and reasonable accommodations in the rules and services of a community association. We will help you make that request in writing.

If we get it wrong

Tell us first if you are willing to: hello@homesteadrealty.example, or ask for the broker-in-charge on (919) 555-0142. We will investigate and respond in writing.

You are entitled to go directly to any of these instead, and at any time:

• U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development — Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity. Complaints may be filed at hud.gov/fairhousing or by telephone.
• North Carolina Human Relations Commission, which administers the State Fair Housing Act.
• North Carolina Real Estate Commission, which licenses and disciplines brokers in this state.

This page is a demonstration of how a brokerage should state its Fair Housing position. It is general information about the law, not legal advice, and Homestead Realty is a fictional firm.

Questions about this page? Write to hello@homesteadrealty.example or call(919) 555-0142.