New-Home Sales · Chapter 09 of 10
Compliance and the never-list
This is an operating document, not a law review. Every row is a rule, what you actually do about it, and where it came from, so you can run the sales center without reading the statute yourself.
Nothing in this chapter is legal advice. It is operational guidance built from the rules current as of 2026-09-04, written so you know what to do day to day and, just as important, when to stop and escalate instead of guessing. Several items below are corroborated by secondary sources rather than a government page you can pull up yourself, and that is noted in the source column each time.
Fair housing in the sales center
| Rule | What you do about it | Chip | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fair Housing Act: no differential treatment based on race, color, religion, sex, familial status, national origin, or disability, in pricing, incentives, financing terms, or lot and home availability | Offer the same published price, incentive, and information to every prospect in the same situation; any deviation needs a documented, non-discriminatory, uniformly-applied reason like a calendar-dated expiring incentive | inference | [1] |
| Steering: current federal posture treats unlawful steering as requiring intent to discriminate on a protected class; sharing neighborhood data (schools, crime) consistently and without discriminatory intent is treated as not itself a violation | Describe the community and the home; never suggest a prospect would or would not "fit" a neighborhood, and apply the same information-sharing practice to everyone at the desk | report | [2] |
| Assistance animals in the model home: the broader FHA reasonable-accommodation standard governs a sales office, not the narrower ADA service-animal-only standard | Treat an assistance-animal request in the sales office under FHA rules, not by asking for ADA-style certification | report | [3] |
| The FHA's design-and-construction accessibility mandate applies only to covered multifamily buildings of 4+ units built after March 13, 1991; it does not, by its own scope, reach a typical single-family model home or production house | Do not assume single-family model home layouts must meet the multifamily accessibility design rules; a separate ADA Title III public-accommodation question can still apply to the sales office function itself | verified | [4] |
Affiliated lender and title
| Rule | What you do about it | Chip | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| RESPA Section 8 AfBA three-part test: written Appendix D disclosure at or before referral, no required use of the affiliate, and the builder receives only a return on ownership interest, not a per-referral fee | Hand over the written AfBA disclosure at the moment you first mention the affiliated lender, never retroactively at closing | verified | [5] |
| "Required use" (Reg X, 12 CFR 1024.2): a buyer must use a particular provider to access some distinct service or discount; a genuinely optional discount that stays optional and unbundled is not required use | Describe the affiliated lender's incentive as optional, every time, and never imply it is a condition of buying the home or of getting the incentive at all | verified | [6] |
| A widely repeated claim describes a "new" 2025 RESPA rule barring rate incentives tied to an affiliated lender; this appears to restate the existing 2009 required-use definition, not a new rulemaking | Do not cite a "new 2025 rule" to a buyer or an agent; the required-use standard itself is longstanding and still the operative test | report | [7] |
Advertising rates and incentives
| Rule | What you do about it | Chip | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reg Z trigger terms (12 CFR 1026.24): stating a down payment, number of payments, payment amount, or finance charge in an ad requires also stating repayment terms and, if a rate is shown, the APR, no less prominently | State the incentive in dollars in any flyer or social post; route specific rate and payment figures through the lender's own approved disclosure | verified | [8] |
| FTC Guides Against Deceptive Pricing and the Mortgage Acts and Practices Advertising Rule (Regulation N, which names home builders): a "sale" or "limited time" claim must be genuinely true and time-limited | Only run a "limited time" or scarcity claim ("only 3 left") if it is literally accurate on the day it publishes | report | [9] |
| Arizona R4-28-502 (amended effective December 13, 2025), verbatim: advertising must "clearly and prominently" show the employing broker's legal or dba name; an "electronic medium, such as the Internet, Artificial Intelligence, or web site technology" that targets Arizona residents counts as advertising; online ads must satisfy every requirement "without the need to scroll"; the designated broker is responsible for all advertising | Put the brokerage or builder's licensed-broker name in every published template, above the fold, with no scroll required, including anything AI-drafted before it publishes | verified | [10] |
State disclosures and cancellation rights
| Rule | What you do about it | Chip | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arizona A.R.S. Section 32-2183: a subdivider must give the buyer the ADRE public report and the opportunity to read it before signing, not after | Hand over the public report and let the buyer actually review it before the purchase agreement is signed, on every Arizona deal | verified | [11] |
| Nevada: the 5-day cancellation right and public offering statement duty live in NRS Chapter 116 (common-interest communities); NRS Chapter 113 (general seller disclosure) actually exempts the first sale of a builder-built home from its disclosure-form requirement | In a Nevada common-interest community, confirm the buyer receives the current POS and understands the 5-calendar-day cancellation window; do not assume the Chapter 113 disclosure form applies to a new build | verified | [12] |
| California: no subdivision may be offered for sale until the DRE issues a public report, delivered to the buyer before they become obligated to purchase | Confirm and document delivery of the public report before the buyer signs | verified | [13] |
| Texas: new construction sold directly by the builder is exempt from the standard Seller's Disclosure Notice when it includes the statutory new-home warranty (Property Code Chapter 430); no statewide public-report or cooling-off statute for new-home purchase contracts was found | Do not tell a Texas buyer they have a state-mandated cooling-off period; none was confirmed to exist for a standard new-construction contract | report | [14] |
Licensing exemptions and their limits
| Rule | What you do about it | Chip | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arizona, Texas, North Carolina, and Georgia each have some form of statutory exemption letting a bona fide W-2 builder employee sell the builder's own inventory without a real estate license; North Carolina's carries a mandatory written self-disclosure and an annual state filing | Confirm your employment status is genuinely W-2, not misclassified, and if in North Carolina, complete the required written disclosure | verified | [15] |
| Florida commission trap: Florida's owner exemption is expressly lost the moment the employee is paid a commission or other transaction-based compensation; only a salaried, non-commissioned builder employee keeps the exemption | Assume a commissioned Florida on-site rep needs a real estate license; do not rely on "I work for the builder" as exemption cover | verified | [16] |
| South Carolina: no exemption at all. The state's own regulator has stated explicitly there is no builder's-agent exemption in South Carolina law | A South Carolina builder cannot use unlicensed commissioned sales staff, period; everyone selling must be a licensed real estate salesperson | verified | [17] |
| California's officer/partner exemption (Bus. & Prof. Code Section 10133(a)) is narrow and does not clearly cover a rank-and-file commissioned sales employee; Nevada's and Colorado's exact builder-employee exemption language was not independently confirmed against primary statute text | Do not assume California or Nevada or Colorado work like Arizona or Texas; confirm your specific state and role with HR or licensing counsel before assuming you are exempt | inference | [18] |
Texting, calling and recording
| Rule | What you do about it | Chip | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| TCPA: a walk-in registration card is not, by itself, consent to text; marketing texts require prior express written consent tied to that specific number, with the revocation rule (any reasonable opt-out, honored within 10 business days, in force since April 11, 2025) | Convert a registration card into a documented opt-in before any SMS outreach; treat any reasonable-sounding opt-out as valid the moment you see it | report | [19] |
| A2P 10DLC: carriers block unregistered business texting to mobile numbers outright, since February 1, 2025 | Confirm your builder's texting platform has registered a brand and campaign with The Campaign Registry before any bulk lead texting | claim | [20] |
| Quiet hours: telemarketing calls and texts only between roughly 8am and 9pm local to the recipient; some states layer narrower windows on top | Have Claude check the recipient's local time zone before drafting or scheduling anything, not your own | report | [21] |
| National DNC Registry: scrub call lists at least every 31 days; cold calls to a registered number need prior express written consent or a qualifying existing relationship | Scrub monthly on a calendar reminder and do not cold-call a DNC number without a documented exception | report | [21] |
| Call-recording consent: roughly 11 states are commonly treated as all-party consent for phone-call recording (including California, Florida, and Nevada), with several more mixed or hybrid | Treat any call you or an AI tool might record as requiring all-party consent unless you have specifically confirmed your state does not require it | report | [22] |
Buyer data
| Rule | What you do about it | Chip | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| State privacy laws (Texas TDPSA, California CCPA/CPRA) can apply to a builder's CRM depending on size and data volume, with no universal small-builder exemption | Do not assume your builder is too small to be covered; that determination is a compliance-desk question, not a sales-floor assumption | report | [23] |
| Buyer PII (contact info, financial documents, ID copies) belongs only in the builder's approved CRM and document systems | Never paste buyer PII into a personal AI tool, a personal spreadsheet, or any system your builder's IT policy has not approved | operator | [24] |
AI use
| Rule | What you do about it | Chip | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anthropic's Usage Policy (effective September 15, 2025) lists "Employment and housing" as a High-Risk Use Case, explicitly naming "decisions regarding eligibility for housing, including leases and home loans"; a qualified human professional must review AI-assisted content before it reaches a buyer, and AI use must be disclosed if output is shown directly to a consumer | Every AI-drafted incentive explainer, financing-adjacent note, or eligibility-sounding answer goes through a human before a buyer sees it, and the buyer is told AI helped draft it | verified | [25] |
| Anthropic's Usage Policy also bars presenting AI output as human-generated; consumer-facing chatbots must disclose they are AI | Any chatbot on the community's site or in text outreach discloses it is AI, plainly, at the start of the interaction | verified | [25] |
| New Jersey N.J.S.A. Section 56:18-2: a bot communicating with a New Jersey person about the sale of real estate must disclose, at the outset and in clear, conspicuous fashion, that it is a bot | Any AI chat tool touching a New Jersey lead or buyer opens with a plain bot disclosure before the conversation goes further | verified | [26] |
| California DRE's March 17, 2026 AI advisory warns that AI giving legal interpretation is a UPL risk, requires broker supervision of AI tools used for licensed or unlicensed activity, and flags fair-housing bias risk even from neutral-seeming AI criteria | In California, treat any AI tool touching sales activity as something your broker is responsible for supervising, and never let AI explain contract language to a buyer | verified | [27] |
The never-list
These are the things you and your AI tools never do in this business, no matter how well a workflow is running. Each one names the rule it comes from.
- Never steer, or treat buyers differently. The Fair Housing Act's general non-discrimination rule requires every prospect get the same price, incentive, and information on the same terms, regardless of protected class.
- Never condition an incentive on the affiliated lender. RESPA Section 8's "required use" prohibition allows a genuinely optional discount, never a requirement to use the builder's own lender.
- Never state a rate or payment without the required disclosures. Reg Z's trigger-term rule (12 CFR 1026.24) requires the full repayment terms and the APR the moment any payment figure is stated.
- Never invent scarcity or a completion date. The FTC's deceptive advertising standard requires any "limited" or urgency claim to be literally true when made.
- Never text or call without consent on file, and never outside quiet hours. TCPA consent, revocation, and quiet-hours rules attach to the number, not to how the number reached your CRM.
- Never let AI send, sign, or write to the CRM unattended. A human sends every message, signs every document, and confirms every CRM write; unattended automation is a documentation and liability risk regardless of the tool.
- Never let AI give lending, legal, or tax guidance to a buyer. Filling in blanks on the builder's approved contract is your job; interpreting what a clause means, or what a buyer will or will not qualify for, is not.
- Never claim to be human when a bot. Anthropic's Usage Policy bars presenting AI output as human-generated, and New Jersey law separately requires an explicit bot disclosure at the outset of any real estate conversation.
- Never export buyer PII to an unapproved tool. Buyer contact information and financial documents stay inside the builder's approved CRM and document systems, per your builder's IT policy.
- Never advertise without the builder's, and where licensed, the broker's required name. Arizona's R4-28-502 and similar state rules require the broker's or brokerage's name clearly and prominently on every ad, in every medium, including anything AI-drafted.
What to disclose, and when
- AI-assisted drafting. When an incentive explainer, buyer update, or other client-facing text was AI-drafted, say so; this is the operational read of Anthropic's high-risk disclosure rule for housing content.
- The affiliated lender relationship. Hand over the written AfBA disclosure at first referral, in the Appendix D format, before the buyer decides anything about financing.
- The state public report or offering statement. Deliver it, and confirm the buyer had the chance to review it, before the purchase agreement is signed, in Arizona, Nevada common-interest communities, and California.
- A bot conversation. Any chatbot or AI-driven text thread discloses it is AI at the very start, and in New Jersey specifically this is a statutory requirement, not just good practice.
When to escalate
- To the sales manager: a buyer goes quiet after contract, misses a design center or loan application deadline, or asks about canceling; any question about whether an incentive can be varied for a specific buyer.
- To counsel: any question that touches contract interpretation or what a clause legally means; a fair housing complaint, formal or informal, raised against you or the community; a state-licensing-exemption question outside the states confirmed in this chapter.
- To the lender's compliance desk: any flyer, social post, or script that states a rate, payment, or finance charge, before it runs; any question about what you may say regarding the affiliated lender's terms.
What stays human
- Every decision to grant, withhold, or vary an incentive, price, or financing term for a specific buyer.
- Every send, sign, and CRM write.
- Delivery and confirmation of every required disclosure: AfBA, state public report, warranty booklet.
- Any determination of whether a given sales role is actually license-exempt in a given state.
- The choice to escalate to a manager, counsel, or the lender's compliance desk, made early rather than after something has already gone out.
Do this today
- Confirm your own employment classification (true W-2 employee, not a 1099 contractor) and, if you are in Florida, confirm whether your pay includes a commission or transaction-based component.
- Pull the last 10 texted or called leads and confirm each has a documented consent record, not just a registration card.
- Print or save the never-list and keep it next to your Claude Project instructions from Chapter 08.
Sources
- Fair Housing Act Section 3604, general non-discrimination standard, retrieved 2026-09-04.
- Cooley Finsights, "HUD Clarifies Scope of Fair Housing Act's Steering Prohibition," finsights.cooley.com, and Federal News Network, "HUD's first-year reset on fair-housing guidance" (2026-04), retrieved 2026-09-04.
- ADA National Network, "Assistance Animals Under the FHA," adata.org, and NLIHC, HUD guidance summary, retrieved 2026-09-04.
- Federal Register, "Fair Housing Act Design and Construction Requirements," federalregister.gov, and HUD USER, Fair Housing Act Design Manual, huduser.gov, retrieved 2026-09-04.
- CFPB, Regulation X Section 1024.15, consumerfinance.gov/rules-policy/regulations/1024/15, retrieved 2026-09-04.
- CFPB, Regulation X Section 1024.2, consumerfinance.gov/rules-policy/regulations/1024/2, retrieved 2026-09-04.
- BuilderOnline, "New RESPA Rule on Required Use Restricts Builders" (framing treated with caution), builderonline.com, retrieved 2026-09-04.
- CFPB, Regulation Z Section 1026.24, consumerfinance.gov/rules-policy/regulations/1026/24, retrieved 2026-09-04.
- FKKS Advertising Law, advertisinglaw.fkks.com, and FTC industry page, search.ftc.gov/industry/real-estate-mortgages, retrieved 2026-09-04.
- Arizona Administrative Code 4 A.A.C. 28, R4-28-502, Supp. 25-4 (amended effective December 13, 2025), apps.azsos.gov/public_services/Title_04/4-28.pdf, retrieved 2026-09-04.
- Arizona Revised Statutes Section 32-2183 via Justia, law.justia.com/codes/arizona/title-32/section-32-2183, and AAR, aaronline.com, retrieved 2026-09-04.
- Nevada Revised Statutes Chapter 116.4108 via Justia, law.justia.com/codes/nevada/chapter-116/statute-116-4108, and NRS Chapter 113, retrieved 2026-09-04.
- California DRE, Public Reports, dre.ca.gov/developers/publicreports.html, retrieved 2026-09-04.
- Texas Property Code Section 5.008 and Chapter 430, as summarized by lrgrealty.com and neuhausre.com, retrieved 2026-09-04.
- Arizona Revised Statutes Section 32-2121, Texas Occupations Code Section 1101.005, North Carolina G.S. Section 93A-2, and Georgia O.C.G.A. Section 43-40-29, via Justia and state legislature sites, retrieved 2026-09-04.
- Florida Statute Section 475.011(1) via Justia, law.justia.com/codes/florida/title-xxxii/chapter-475/part-i/section-475-011, retrieved 2026-09-04.
- South Carolina LLR, "No Builder's Exemption in SC," llr.sc.gov/re/News/No Builder's Exemption in SC.pdf, retrieved 2026-09-04.
- California Business and Professions Code Section 10133(a) via Justia; Nevada NRS Chapter 645 and Colorado DRE materials not independently confirmed against primary text, retrieved 2026-09-04.
- EZ Texting, SMS compliance guide, eztexting.com/real-estate, and GoPiperGo, TCPA compliance guide, gopipergo.com, retrieved 2026-09-04.
- Marqeable, SMS compliance for contractors (10DLC/TCPA), marqeable.com, retrieved 2026-09-04.
- Florida Realtors, Do Not Call library, floridarealtors.org/law-ethics/library, retrieved 2026-09-04.
- Recording Law, Two-Party Consent States (2026 guide), recordinglaw.com/party-two-party-consent-states, retrieved 2026-09-04.
- Secure Privacy, Texas Data Privacy and Security Act overview, secureprivacy.ai, and CCPA Requirements 2026, secureprivacy.ai, retrieved 2026-09-04.
- Operator guidance, from a Phoenix buyer's agent who builds inventory tools for builder reps: buyer PII stays inside the builder's approved systems, never a personal tool, retrieved 2026-09-04.
- Anthropic, Usage Policy, anthropic.com/legal/aup, retrieved 2026-09-04.
- New Jersey Statutes Annotated Section 56:18-2 via Justia, law.justia.com/codes/new-jersey/title-56/section-56-18-2, retrieved 2026-09-04.
- California DRE, Advisory: Artificial Intelligence in California Real Estate, March 17, 2026, dre.ca.gov, retrieved 2026-09-04.
Starting from zero? Use the field manuals first.
02 · BEFORE YOU BUY SOFTWARE
If you're still choosing the buyer, offer, stack, agents, content, customers, and delivery, don't start with a tool: start with the manuals. These create local worksheets only: no checkout, outreach, or account setup.
Find the first manual
Not sure which guide to open first? Start from your stuck point and let the finder recommend the next manual and the first worksheet question. No personal data is collected: it just points you at the right starting move.
Work the starter pack
Move through buyer, offer, stack, agents, content, customers, and delivery as a sequence of short local worksheet sessions. One artifact at a time, in order, so you build the business instead of browsing for it.
See what "done" looks like
Read a fully worked field manual before writing your own version, so the output feels concrete: a real, numbered workflow with the risky steps gated, not a fake proof claim.