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Q. I asked an apartment leasing agent what the resident mix was in terms of, were they professionals, students etc. All she would say was that they rent to any qualified applicants. Are leasing agents not allowed to give this information? If someone, for instance, has children and wants to know if families live in the complex, the agent couldn’t say?
A. “I do not know of anyone who gathers demographic information other than the U.S. government,” said Jerry S. Panz, chief executive officer of the Wilmington Regional Association of Realtors.
As to the composition of specific housing projects, “I do not know why any leasing agent would want to gather that information,” Panz said.
“Brokers are taught not to discriminate, learning fair housing laws that protect certain classes in particular, like families with children, and then there are privacy laws which restrict what information may be gathered and disseminated,” Panz said.
New laws have been enacted in recent years that require the protection of information gathered on applications, Panz added.
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Date posted: November 19, 2012
User-contributed question by:
roscoe
That is about the stupidest answer I’ve ever read and it doesn’t even sound logical. A leasing agent doesn’t have to be a rocket scientist to know if there are a mix of residents.
That is not tracking demographics, that is observation, either by seeing them around, or when they come in to pay rent, or hearing from other complex agents. My daughter went to one complex that told her they already had their quota of students, so obviously some agents are observant, or the complex keeps records.