Legality around getting a certain of type of renter

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My co-worked just puts her ads up in Mandarin on line. She only rents to single Asian women with full time jobs.

She is a single Asian women in a two family home, She is comfortable this way and they are low maint, quiet people who pay rent on time and never bother her.

Totally legal, it is her primary house and not using a realtor.

That's different than what OP is describing. A separate basement apartment.

[Anonymous]

Look up the Mrs Murphy exemption to the fair housing act. Your situation is likely exempt from the law

[Anonymous]

I mean just don't tell anyone.

FYI: I am black and rented to an older white man and he was an amazing tenant lol. Never heard from the guy unless it was an emergency.

I am now renting to multiple young women of color and sigh--college students can be annoying.

But you can def. just say you willl rent to to young people in DC for internships. Just use ur networks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Look up the Mrs Murphy exemption to the fair housing act. Your situation is likely exempt from the law

It may be exempt from FHA, but the Mrs. Murphy exemption doesn't extend to advertising--so OP still can't run an ad specifying which groups can apply.

The key is just to advertise where your target renters will see the ad, and set the parameters of the tenancy in a way that will attract people you want to attract (e.g., if you want college students, you can advertise at your local college and say the room is available only from the first week of the semester to the end of the semester--you'll probably get a college student as your tenant).

[Anonymous]

OP’s post is like asking whether its ok to jay walk on a weekend morning with no cars in sight. It’s amazing that someone could fret, worry amd handwring about such a tiny little thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I assure you, I get the landscape and what I am asking. And I still don’t think I need to apologize. I scraped by when I was in my early 20s taking unpaid internships and working three jobs to pay for rent to get experience in field I believed in. And now that field is under attack. And in parallel, I have found success and now have a giant unoccupied basement I am able to rent out. So yeah. I’d like to pay it forward and charge nothing to a smart young person who is also in my field. Bc I can, I want to give a leg up to a POC or woman who might be able to have a summer or semester that was a little easier then I had it. I do wonder if this is legal so I know what I am getting into. But I assure you, the legality will not particularly affect my plans.

The fair housing doesn't really pertain to small time land lords with less than a few unit or renting out part of their home. You can't explicitly say no darkies or white devils but if you just ignore them until they go away you can rent to who ever you like for what ever you like if you can find a target person wanting to rent. If it lives up to your expectations is another story.

This micro discrimination is why black people actually have a hard time penetrating expensive white neighborhoods. Allegedly anyone can buy in AU park or Cleveland park, but good luck renting there.

I'm intrigued by this. Not sure I've read it right, but it sounds like those neighborhoods' rental markets end up being strangely closed to certain people. Anyone care to full me in some more?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a basement studio apartment I’d like to leverage for some extra income, but the obvious choices—Airbnb or a long term rental—hasn’t sat well with me for various reasons. Recently I came up with the idea of doing short term rentals, like a month or two or a summer, for young women who are working on issues I am supportive of. Like perhaps a PhD student doing research or an intern working at a non profit I believe in. I’d charge them steeply reduced rent and perhaps get to know some really sharp young people. This would also give us the flexibility to have the space open for the holidays, for example, so our parents can stay.

I mentioned this idea to a friend and she insisted that this was illegal and that I need to be in line with fair housing practices. Is that correct?

Also, any ideas what networks I could reach out to where an offer like this could be welcome? I went to undergrad and grad school in dc so seems like many students or young people wouldn’t need something like this, as opposed to out of town schools.

What are your thoughts?

I don't know if you're new to landlording but what I see in your post is some grade A naivete. What you're doing is equating a certain set of views in a person to their perfection as a tenant, and it just doesn't work that way. These people aren't your friends. Your relationship is strictly businesslike. What you should care about is: do they pay on time? Are they good about maintenance and cleanliness? Are they weird? Are they going to use your microwave for food storage and forget about it for days, leaving you with a pest problem? Are they going to feed you a sob story every month about why they can't pay? Are they going to grill something on open fire and scorch the cabinets? Are they going to call you every time a light bulb needs replacing? Are they going to be snowflakes who can't be held to rights?

I assure you, a superliberal young POC woman is just as capable of being a major non-paying PITA as a young white male Republican! And vice versa! Are you going to be less annoyed snaking a toilet because it's liberal feces? No! You're just not going to care. Look for a good tenant first and forget the rest. You seem to want to exert an inordinate amount of control over all the wrong things.

This this a million times this. We rent out our starter home to people who pay on time, are nice, problem solve when problems need solving, and are respectful. They are millennial, conservative, right wing republicans and we don't care at all. They are nice people who take pride in where they live. The home WE OWN!

[Anonymous]

If you really want to help people who think just like you, OP, go to the places they would work- Planned Parenthood, Brookings, Center for American Progress, political campaigns, etc and advertise to interns. That being said, I think you sound very idealistic and not too sharp about how being a landlord works. As others have said, find the best PERSON to be your tenant regardless of age, race, religion, political party, etc. Far more important is the content of one's character and their fiscal responsibility. As a conservative white woman, I can honestly say I would rent out my basement apartment to anyone that fits the character and financial criteria even if that includes a young Muslim black man who is nothing like me. Maybe he is the best tenant out there and maybe we can learn something from one another.

[Anonymous]

Try working through your college alumni network to offer housing for interns for a certain price.

[Anonymous]

I would let non-profits know directly that you have a space you’d like to offer below market rent to one fo their summer interns. There’s probably even a way you can set it up as a fellowship and get a tax deduction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My co-worked just puts her ads up in Mandarin on line. She only rents to single Asian women with full time jobs.

She is a single Asian women in a two family home, She is comfortable this way and they are low maint, quiet people who pay rent on time and never bother her.

Totally legal, it is her primary house and not using a realtor.

That's different than what OP is describing. A separate basement apartment.

No it isn’t, that is part of her house

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My co-worked just puts her ads up in Mandarin on line. She only rents to single Asian women with full time jobs.

She is a single Asian women in a two family home, She is comfortable this way and they are low maint, quiet people who pay rent on time and never bother her.

Totally legal, it is her primary house and not using a realtor.

That's different than what OP is describing. A separate basement apartment.

No it isn’t, that is part of her house

So now illegal for a Chinese women to rent to a Chinese women?

[Anonymous]

You want to discriminate on the basis of race, age and gender but you consider yourself liberal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You want to discriminate on the basis of race, age and gender but you consider yourself liberal?

Sadly this mindset has become pretty common.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have a basement studio apartment I’d like to leverage for some extra income, but the obvious choices—Airbnb or a long term rental—hasn’t sat well with me for various reasons. Recently I came up with the idea of doing short term rentals, like a month or two or a summer, for young women who are working on issues I am supportive of. Like perhaps a PhD student doing research or an intern working at a non profit I believe in. I’d charge them steeply reduced rent and perhaps get to know some really sharp young people. This would also give us the flexibility to have the space open for the holidays, for example, so our parents can stay.

I mentioned this idea to a friend and she insisted that this was illegal and that I need to be in line with fair housing practices. Is that correct?

Also, any ideas what networks I could reach out to where an offer like this could be welcome? I went to undergrad and grad school in dc so seems like many students or young people wouldn’t need something like this, as opposed to out of town schools.

What are your thoughts?

Former PhD student in the DC area here. I looked for something like what you are talking about doing but never found it. I did know two PhD students who found a gig like that. It helped them so much. As in they saved as much as possible and were able to put a down payment on their first house in the middle of nowhere college town where they are now faculty.