Landlord Question and Answer Forum

We have 3 single family rental houses in upstate New York, and looking to add more. They are all near a university(s), and we have kept them full with undergraduate and graduate students. We feel that we get higher rents, they all have enough money to pay through the year, and so far have had no issues with conduct. This is our preferred tenant. We are designing a web site both for prospective and existing tenants. Existing tenants can log in and pay rent, update utilitiy charges and pass messages. Prospective tenants can view the houses. My question is: Can we put on the public side of the website our preference for students, or are there limitations on what we can say ? Thanks in advance for any guidance.

Congratulations on building your website! Yes you can advertise directly for students, because non-students are not a "protected class" (the seven forbidden reasons to discriminate are: race, color, national heritage, religion, gender, disability, and familial status). There's an article about what you can and can't say in your rental listings and advertising: https://www.ezlandlordforms.com/articles/tenant_screening__rental_advertising__and_the_fair_housing_act/.

Posted by Gregory T, CA on Monday, November 8, 2010

Gregory Thanks for the info, I appreciate your taking the time to respond.

Posted by Samantha H, NY on Monday, November 15, 2010