Rules of the Road

These rules are for licensees who recommend Custom RAAM or receive a client’s RAAM link. They do not limit what a buyer may research on their own. Buyers keep full access to every scoring factor and tool on the site.

This page is not legal advice. It summarizes a conservative sharing posture aligned with equal professional service, common fair-housing themes (including not volunteering racial or ethnic composition of a neighborhood), and the idea that scores are not appraisals. Your brokerage policy controls when it is stricter.

Equal professional service

Offer the same kind of research resources to every client. If you share a Custom RAAM link, school-district site, or similar DIY tool with one buyer, be prepared to share the same category of resource with others who ask — without regard to protected characteristics.

Do not use RAAM (or any tool) to give richer neighborhood briefings to some clients and thinner ones to others based on who they are.

DIY referral is generally OK

Pointing a client to a research tool so they evaluate schools, commute, home condition, budget fit, and similar non-protected criteria is usually consistent with long-standing practice: refer people to objective sources and let them decide.

In April 2026, HUD clarified that discussing school quality and crime statistics with prospective buyers is not, by itself, a Fair Housing Act violation when information is shared consistently and without discriminatory intent. That does not mean anything goes — it supports informed, even-handed information sharing, not steering.

A low-risk pattern: send the same neutral link, attach a short disclaimer (Sharing Script), and keep selecting listings from the objective criteria the client states (budget, beds, commute time, property type, and so on).

Schools and objective neighborhood data

Generally OK: Direct clients to district websites, state school report cards, listing school fields, or third-party school data for their own review. Encourage visits and primary sources. Stay factual and consistent across clients.

Avoid: Subjective “good schools / bad schools for people like you.” Using school talk as a coded stand-in for who lives in an area. Providing school deep-dives only to favored clients.

Custom RAAM’s School Quality factor is a buyer DIY signal. You may acknowledge that the client cares about schools; you should not adopt the score as your professional rating of a district without independent, equal, objective sourcing.

Hard line: racial and ethnic composition

When involved in the sale or lease of a residence, REALTOR® Standards of Practice (Article 10) instruct members not to volunteer information regarding the racial, religious, or ethnic composition of a neighborhood. State fair-housing and license rules also target steering based on protected classes or the composition of an area.

Custom RAAM includes a Community Diversity factor that buyers may weight for themselves. That buyer-facing research remains available. For you as a licensee:

Do not walk a client through racial/ethnic diversity score bars as your guidance on where to live.
Do not filter or prioritize showings because a RAAM diversity score is high or low.
Do not paraphrase reports as “this area has the right / wrong demographics for you.”
If a client independently researches demographics, keep your role to lawful, non-steering service — including refusing unlawful instructions from any party.

Prefer the Sharing Script: share the tool as DIY research; decline to interpret composition scores.

Preferred and excluded towns

Buyers may list preferred or excluded towns in their profile. That is their preference list.

Avoid proposing or enforcing town filters as a proxy for who lives there. Base your search geography on non-protected criteria the client articulates (commute, price, property type, flood zone preferences where lawful, and similar). If a preference brief mixes objective needs with demographic-tinged goals, stick to the lawful, objective portion and escalate policy questions to your broker.

AI verdicts, Deep Analysis, Worth, and appraisals

Not an appraisal. Worth estimates and Value for Money scores are data-backed decision support, not licensed appraisals. Say so if a client forwards them.

Not your firm’s buy/pass call. Deep Analysis, Chat, Compare, and similar surfaces may use strong language (approve, caution, pass). That is buyer-side decision support. Do not adopt those verdicts as your professional recommendation or as a substitute for your own analysis and disclosures.

Not an inspection. Condition-style scores do not replace a licensed inspector.

Myths versus facts

Myth	More accurate posture
“I will lose my license if I let a buyer research schools themselves.”	Unsupported as a blanket rule. Equal, non-discriminatory sharing of school/crime-type information is treated differently from steering. Follow brokerage policy.
“Any DIY research link is illegal to mention.”	Referring clients to third-party research tools is a common compliance pattern. Risk rises with how you interpret and whether service is equal.
“RAAM diversity scores are fine for me to explain like any other factor.”	High caution. Volunteering or applying racial/ethnic composition is the sharp risk for licensees — even when buyers may research privately.
“A RAAM score is an appraisal I can stand behind.”	No. Disclaim; point to licensed appraisers when a formal valuation is needed.

When in doubt

Share the same DIY link with a sample disclaimer.
Do not interpret demographic composition outputs.
Do not present scores as appraisals or as your definitive advice to buy or pass.
Ask your managing broker if your office forbids third-party consumer tools.

Not legal advice. Brokerages may require their own templates. Revisit this page when HUD, NAR, or your state commission updates fair-housing guidance.

Last reviewed: 2026-08-04