Legal Risk of Bias in Real Estate Recommendation Apps?

[Nazmi Bunjaku]

Hi all,

I’m a software engineer thinking of building a machine learning driven, real estate investment recommender app. The core idea is that a user enters their financial profile (e.g., income, savings, debt, investment goals) and selects a general location (city, ZIP code, radius, etc.). My ML model then analyzes available property listings combined with market data (crime rates, appreciation trends, school scores, etc.) to recommend properties that align with the user’s goals — cash flow, growth, or safety.

I’m trying to be extremely careful to ensure that my system does not cross any legal lines, especially with regard to Fair Housing laws or algorithmic bias concerns.

While the model doesn’t discriminate on protected classes (race, gender, etc.), it does consider factors like crime rates, school quality, and local economics — all of which can indirectly overlap with sensitive social patterns. I’m worried that someone could claim the model is steering users toward or away from certain neighborhoods, which might have disparate impact concerns.

Here’s what I want to understand clearly:

1. If a user selects the general region/city themselves, and my model just filters from that based on quantifiable criteria (like ROI, rent-to-price ratio, crime, etc.), can I still be liable for biased or exclusionary suggestions?

2. Are there best practices or disclaimers I can implement to reduce my legal exposure here?

3. Do real estate platforms or AI apps typically employ legal teams or audits for this?

4. Would it help to make the recommendations transparent — i.e., show a breakdown of the exact variables and how they affected the ranking of each property?

If anyone has experience in real estate tech, legal compliance, or has seen real-world cases like this, your input would be very valuable. I want to build a helpful tool without stumbling into any unintentional ethical or legal landmines.

Thanks in advance!