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?

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.