Michigan Online Real Estate Continuing Education (con ed)

  For those of you who are math junkies, you might already know that today is Pi Day. Pi Day is a “holiday” celebrated every March 14th (3/14). The Greek letter "pi" is the mathematical symbol for the relationship between the circumference of a circle and its diameter.  Pi = 3.14.  Because March ...

Here is another example of a lawsuit that was recently filed by the United States Department of Justice ("DOJ") to enforce the Fair Housing Act. I try to post summaries of these types of cases in order to provide timely updates to real estate professionals about the "dos and don'ts" under the Fa...

I meant to post this yesterday, but time slipped away and I missed the opportunity.  But given Chuck Norris' cult status, I figured better late than never. Yesterday, March 10, 2009, was Chuck Norris' 69th birthday!  Chuck is the beloved action film star from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s and the ...

Question:  What kinds of information, if any, may a housing provider request from a person with an obvious or known disability who is requesting a reasonable accommodation or reasonable modification? A housing provider is entitled to obtain information that is necessary to evaluate whether a req...

Although not an exhaustive list, these examples should give you some idea of what might constitute a discriminatory housing advertisement under fair housing laws.  Most of these examples are obvious and should come as no surprise, but it never hurts to have a short refresher on this important to...

Fair housing laws apply to all types of advertising and marketing used in home sales and purchases, including ads in newspapers, on the radio, in magazines, on the Internet, on television, on flyers, even in comments for a listing in the Multiple Listing Service.  But what should you consider be...

The following is a summary of what it takes to qualify as a "person with a disability" under the Fair Housing Act. The Fair Housing Act defines a person with a disability to include (1) individuals with a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities; (...

The goal of the Fair Housing Act is to ensure “no person shall be subjected to discrimination because of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status or national origin in the sale, rental or advertising of dwellings, in the provision of brokerage services, or in the availability of resi...

Here is another example of a lawsuit that was recently filed by the United States Department of Justice ("DOJ") to enforce the Fair Housing Act. I try to post summaries of these types of cases in order to provide timely updates to real estate professionals about the "dos and don'ts" under the Fa...

For those of you who are math junkies, you might already know that today is Square Root Day. Square Root Day is a “holiday” celebrated on dates where the day and the month are both the square root of the last two digits in the current year. Today is 3/3/09 (three is the square root of nine). Cel...