Today, fifty-five years after the passing of the Federal Fair Housing Act, people still deal with housing discrimination. One of the goals the 2022 Arizona REALTORS® Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Committee set last year was to look at how to bring more awareness to the consumer about fair housing issues. 

Several EDI committee members met with the Risk Management Committee (RMC) to request that fair housing verbiage be added to certain forms. After much discussion, the Risk Management Committee decided the issue is of such significance that it formed a workgroup[1] to create a new Fair Housing Advisory.

The intention of the form is to remind consumers that it’s against the law to discriminate in any form when renting or selling property.  The form also provides links for additional information and resources for people who believe they may have been a victim of housing discrimination. The new Advisory can be found in your forms libraries as of February 1, 2023.

The EDI committee and RMC are asking brokers across the state to encourage their agents to use this Advisory in every transaction – like the Wire Fraud Advisory or the Buyer Advisory. And whether the Advisory is required or not, to be a Fair Housing advocate and use this Advisory to educate your clients – both buyers and sellers.

A great time to introduce the Fair Housing Advisory might be when you are reviewing agency with your client, presenting the Buyer Advisory, or make the Advisory a regular part of your listing paperwork.

If you have questions about the form, please speak with your broker.  Arizona REALTORS® continue to stand for accessible and available housing for everyone – regardless of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, familial, status, sexual orientation, gender identity and ability status.

[1] The workgroup was chaired by D. Patrick Lewis and the workgroup members were Butch Leiber, Torey Gannon, Rick Mack, Lisa Paffrath, Holly Eslinger, Sharon Ellsworth, Jon Kichen, and Jan Leighton.