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In this lesson, we’re going to review the fair housing rules as they apply to advertising your community, most of which is probably done online now. Although communities still run print ads in newspapers and apartment guides and on billboards, a large part of their marketing effort is devoted to promoting the property on: (1) websites that list rental vacancies, like Craiglist; (2) social media sites that show ads to their users and allow properties to create their own homepages, like Facebook; and (3) their own community’s website.

This month, Fair Housing Coach reviews recent developments—court rulings, settlements, and enforcement agency actions—in fair housing law. Staying on top of developments may help you to avoid common problems that so often lead to fair housing trouble and resolve minor grievances before they escalate into formal fair housing complaints.

This month, the Coach takes a look at emerging trends that have the potential to significantly change the legal landscape in fair housing law. With the help of our fair housing experts, Doug Chasick and Kathelene Williams, we’ll highlight these trends, explaining what’s happening and how it might affect your community.

Are you confident when it comes to fair housing? Or are you worried about falling short and inadvertently triggering a discrimination claim? It’s bad enough when seemingly small missteps cause problems, but it’s even worse when those problems escalate into costly lawsuits.

In this lesson, we’ll show how fair housing rules play out in the real world by taking a close look at real disputes resolved through the court system in the last year. The people and particular circumstances of the cases may be unique, but they shed light on what you should—or shouldn’t—do to avoid fair housing trouble.

It’s New Year’s, a natural time to look back at the past year and think about the things we’d like to do differently in the upcoming year, such as losing weight, hitting the gym, or getting organized. Whatever your personal goals, turning the page on the calendar also makes it a good time to take stock of your current fair housing efforts—and make some New Year’s resolutions to help your community avoid fair housing trouble in the upcoming year.

In this Special Issue, the Coach wraps up 2017 with a review of this year’s lessons. Keep it handy—it’s a quick refresher on top fair housing concerns we covered this year. It’s also a helpful index to the full lessons, all of which are available to review or download from FairHousingCoach.com. And you’ll find quiz questions—with a link to the answers—so you can see how much you’ve learned.

This month, the Coach tackles a fair housing myth: You have to treat everyone the same to comply with fair housing law. It’s a common belief, but it’s not as simple as that. The law requires that you give everyone an equal opportunity to live at your community—not that you treat everyone the same.

In this month’s lesson, the Coach reviews recent court rulings on fair housing law. In each case, we review the events leading up to the dispute and how it landed in court. Then, we explain the legal issues involved, what the court decided and why, and highlight the takeaway lessons that you can use to avoid similar fair housing problems at your community. Finally, you can take the Coach’s Quiz to see how much you’ve learned.

You never get a second chance to make a first impression, as the saying goes. It means that you should always put your best foot forward whenever you meet someone new: It takes only a few seconds for a stranger to size us up based on outward appearances—and snap judgments based on negative first impressions are notoriously hard to break.