Fair Housing & how we work
This page states two things plainly: the Fair Housing commitments that govern everything we publish and every list we send, and exactly how a service that is free to renters gets paid. Both belong on one page you can check rather than buried in body copy.
What we will not do
We do not characterize neighborhood safety. No "safest areas", no crime commentary, no "good part of town". Safety framing correlates with racial composition and is the clearest steering exposure a locator has. If you want that data it is published by public agencies and you should read it directly.
We do not steer. Not on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status or disability, and not through proxy language. You will not see "great for young professionals" or "perfect for families" anywhere on this site. Those phrases sort people, and sorting people is the thing the Fair Housing Act exists to stop.
We do not characterize a criminal record. On our background pages we state what a property's policy is, as the property states it, with a date. We never tell a renter their record automatically disqualifies them, and we never tell them it will be fine.
We do not reference a renter's disability. Where accommodation questions arise we describe the process, not the person, and we point you to the right party to ask.
We do not promise approval, and we do not publish an undated statistic. Every rent, fee, concession and credit threshold on this site carries a confirmation date.
What we compare instead
Three things, on every submarket page: rent by unit type, off-peak commute times to the employment centers that submarket actually serves, and inventory age and class mix. Those are verifiable, useful, and none of them sort people.
Inventory age in particular does real work. Roughly 18% of San Antonio's rental stock was built between 1980 and 1989, and that older Class B and C product is where an on-site manager still reviews a complicated file by hand. That is a screening fact about buildings, not a claim about the people who live in them.
How we get paid
When a renter we introduce signs a lease, the community pays us a referral fee. It comes from the community's marketing budget. The same money it would otherwise spend on listing-platform advertising. That is the entire model.
You are never invoiced. There is no placement fee, no consultation fee, no charge if you look and do not lease, and no charge if we cannot place you at all.
We do not offer a cash-back rebate at move-in, and we would rather explain that than let it look like an omission. Rebates are funded out of the same referral fee. The bigger the advertised rebate, the stronger the incentive to route renters toward whichever community pays the largest fee rather than the one most likely to approve them. Keeping the model plain keeps the recommendation honest.
Licensing and required notices
San Antonio Apartment Locators Group is brokered by Spirit Real Estate Group, LLC, TREC #9003398. Tom Birdwell is the designated broker. We are members of the National Association of Apartment Locators (NAAL).
The Texas Real Estate Commission requires two consumer notices to be available from every page. Ours are linked in the footer and reproduced here:
On what we publish
We publish only what we can produce records for. That currently means the brokerage and licence, that our agents are licensed in Texas, NAAL membership, the free-to-renter structure, posted hours and the physical office.
Client counts, leases placed, review totals and star ratings are past-performance claims. A number that cannot be produced on request is misrepresentation under TREC advertising rules and is actionable under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act and FTC endorsement guidelines. So those go up when they are earned and documented, and not before. The testimonials currently shown on this site are labelled as illustrative examples for exactly that reason.
Equal Housing Opportunity
We support the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Opportunity Act. If you believe you have experienced housing discrimination, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development accepts complaints directly, and the Texas Workforce Commission Civil Rights Division handles state-level fair housing complaints.
Questions about how we work
Is your service really free to renters?
Yes. When a renter we introduce signs a lease, the community pays us a referral fee out of its marketing budget. The same budget it would otherwise spend advertising on listing platforms. You are never invoiced, never charged a placement fee, and never charged if you do not lease. We do not offer a cash-back rebate, because rebates are funded from that same fee and create a pull toward whichever property pays most.
Do you steer renters toward or away from neighborhoods?
No. We never characterize neighborhood safety, and we do not use "great for young professionals" or "perfect for families" style language. Both correlate with protected characteristics and both are steering. We compare submarkets on rent by unit type, off-peak commute times to real employment centers, and inventory age and class mix.
Why will you not tell me which areas are safe?
Because safety framing correlates strongly with racial composition, and it is the clearest steering exposure a locator has. It is also not information we are qualified to give. If you want crime data, it is published by public agencies and you can read it directly. What we can tell you is rent, commute and building age.
How do you handle criminal background information?
We state property policies factually, as the property states them, with a date. We never characterize a record as automatically disqualifying or automatically acceptable. HUD guidance issued in 2016 made blanket criminal-record exclusions a disparate-impact exposure under the Fair Housing Act, which is part of why individualized assessment appears in screening criteria more often than it used to.
What about disability and reasonable accommodation?
We never reference a renter’s disability in our records or in any communication with a property. Where accommodation or assistance-animal questions come up, we describe the process a property follows, not the person. Requests are yours to make directly with the property, and we will tell you who to ask.
Do you guarantee approval?
No, and neither can anyone else honestly. We pre-qualify your file against published property standards so you apply where you have a real chance. Every rent, fee, concession and screening threshold we publish carries a confirmation date, and properties change standards without notice.
Question not answered here?
Send it over with your file details and we will answer it against current property standards, not a general rule of thumb.
Get Started, Free
Now that you know how it works
Free pre-qualification against current San Antonio property standards. No steering, no approval promises, no cost.
- Free to you. The community pays the referral fee
- Licensed under Spirit Real Estate Group, LLC
- No approval promises, no undated numbers