3 Hour Fair Housing & Bias

This course fulfills the MD and VA requirements for Fair Housing/Bias.    

 This course explores fair housing, bias, and  discrimination in

    real property valuation services. Starting with the basics,  it will review

    federal fair housing laws enacted over the years, including the  Civil

    Rights Act of 1866, the Fair Housing Act of 1968, the Housing and  Community

    Development Act of 1974, the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988, and  more.

    We will also look over the Equal Credit  Opportunity Act of 1974

    (ECOA), the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act,  Section 8 (RESPA), and

    the Housing for Older Persons Act of 1995 (HOPA). We  will discuss the

    concepts of redlining, the fair housing complaint process, HUD  enforcement,

    Department of Justice enforcement, private lawsuits, and new  penalties and

    sanctions for non-compliance. 

There are several different types of biases. We  will review

    definitions and examples of biases, particularly those that may be

    unintended and potentially occur in real appraisal work.

 The current edition of the Uniform Standards of  Professional

    Appraisal Practice (USPAP) will be reviewed for guidance on fair  housing,

    bias, and discrimination.

Finally, this course will offer suggestions for  appraisers to

    consider to avoid unintentional fair housing bias and  discrimination

    violations and what they should do if they find themselves the  subject of a

    fair housing complaint.