Fair housing

Our commitment

We encourage and support an affirmative advertising and marketing program in which there are no barriers to obtaining housing because of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status or national origin. Florida law additionally protects against discrimination on those bases in the sale, rental and financing of housing.

This applies to every part of how this site works: the listings we publish, the language used to describe them, who is shown which properties and how inquiries are handled.

What this means for listings on this site

Sellers publish their own listings here, and every listing is reviewed by the broker before it goes live. Part of that review is a fair housing read. A listing describes the property, never the person the seller imagines living in it.

Wording that will be sent back for correction includes, among other things:

• References to the ideal buyer or tenant by any protected characteristic
• Descriptions of a neighbourhood in terms of who lives there rather than what is there
• Phrases that signal a preference or a limitation, including apparently friendly ones such as describing a property as suited to a particular kind of family
• Statements about proximity to places of worship, schools or community facilities framed as a selling point to a specific group

If a listing slips through with wording that should not have, tell us and it will be corrected or removed.

Accessibility of this website

This site is built to be usable with a keyboard alone and with a screen reader, with text contrast that meets the WCAG 2.2 AA threshold and touch targets sized for a phone. If any part of it prevents you from getting to information you need, contact us and we will fix it and give you the information directly in the meantime.

Reporting a concern

Call (863) 266-0411 or write to Highlands Realty, 1225 US Highway 27 South, Suite 103, Sebring, FL 33870. Concerns about a specific listing are handled by the broker directly.

You may also file a housing discrimination complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development at hud.gov/fair-housing, or with the Florida Commission on Human Relations. Contacting us first is not a precondition to doing so.