(1) "Brokerage services" means access to or membership or participation in a multiple-listing service, real estate brokers' organization or other service, organization, or facility relating to the business of selling or renting dwellings;

(2) "Dwelling" means any building, structure or portion thereof that is occupied as, or designed or intended for occupancy as, a residence by one or more families, and any vacant land that is offered for sale or lease for the construction or location thereon of any such building, structure, or portion thereof;

(3) "Families with children status" means one or more individuals who have not attained the age of eighteen years being domiciled with a parent or another person having legal custody of such individual or individuals, or with the designee of such parent or other person having such legal custody, with the written permission of such parent or other person. Families with children status also applies to any person who is pregnant or is in the process of securing legal custody of any individual who has not attained the age of eighteen years;

(4) "Real estate transaction" includes the sale, appraisal, brokering, exchange, purchase, rental, or lease of real property; transacting or applying for a real estate loan; the provision of brokerage services; or the making or purchasing of loans secured by residential real estate;

(5) "Real property" includes buildings, structures, dwellings, real estate, land, tenements, leaseholds, interests in real estate cooperatives, condominiums, and hereditaments, corporeal and incorporeal, or any interest therein;

(6) "Unfair practices on the basis of creed" or "discrimination on the basis of creed" includes, but is not limited to religious discrimination under the federal Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988.

(7) "'Dog guide' means a dog that is trained for the purpose of guiding blind persons or a dog that is trained for the purpose of assisting hearing impaired persons."

(8) "'Service animal' means an animal that is trained for the purpose of assisting or accommodating a disabled person's sensory, mental, or physical disability."

(1) It is an unfair practice for any person, whether acting for himself, herself, or another, because of sex, sexual orientation, gender expression or gender identity, marital status, race, creed, color, national origin, families with children status, the presence of any sensory, mental, or physical disability, or the use of a trained dog guide or service animal by a disabled person:

(a) To refuse to engage in a real estate transaction with a person;

(b) To discriminate against a person in the terms, conditions, or privileges or a real estate transaction or in the furnishing of facilities or services in connection therewith;

(c) To refuse to receive or to fail to transmit a bona fide offer to engage in a real estate transaction from a person;

(d) To refuse to negotiate for a real estate transaction with a person;

(e) To represent to a person that real property is not available for inspection, sale, rental, or lease when in fact it is so available, or to fail to bring a property listing to his or her attention, or to refuse to permit the person to inspect real property;

(f) To discriminate in the sale or rental, or to otherwise make unavailable or deny a dwelling, to any person; or to a person residing in or intending to reside in that dwelling after it is sold, rented, or made available; or to any person associated with the person buying or renting;

(g) To make, print, publish, circulate, post, mail, or cause to be so made or published a statement, advertisement, or sign, or to use a form of application for a real estate transaction, or to make a record or inquiry in connection with a prospective real estate transaction, which indicates, directly or indirectly, an intent to make a limitation, specification, or discrimination with respect thereto;

(h) To offer, solicit, accept, use, or retain listing of real property with the understanding that a person may be discriminated against in a real estate transaction or in the furnishing of facilities or services in connection therewith;

(i) To expel a person from occupancy of real property;

(j) To discriminate in the course of negotiating, executing, or financing a real estate transaction whether by mortgage, deed of trust, contract, or other instrument imposing a lien or other security in real property, or in negotiating or executing any item or service related thereto including issuance of title insurance, mortgage insurance, loan guarantee, or other aspect of the transaction. Nothing in this section shall limit the effect of RCW 49.60.176 relating to unfair practices in credit transactions;

(k) To attempt to do any of the unfair practices defined in this chapter or chapter 49.60 RCW.

(2) It is an unfair practice for any person, for profit, to induce or attempt to induce any person to sell or rent any real property by representations regarding the entry or prospective entry into the neighborhood of a person or persons of a particular race, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender expression or gender identity, national origin, families with children status, or with any sensory, mental or physical disability and/or the use of a trained dog guide or service animal by a disabled person.

(3) It is an unfair practice to insert in a written instrument relating to real property a provision that is void under RCW 49.60.224(1) or to honor or attempt to honor such a provision in the chain of title.

(4) Nothing in this chapter prohibits a person engaged in the business of furnishing appraisals of real property to take into consideration factors other than race, color, creed, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender expression or gender identity, disability, the use of a trained dog guide or service animal by a disabled person, or families with children status.

(5) Nothing in this chapter limits the applicability of any reasonable federal, state or local restrictions regarding the maximum number of occupants permitted to occupy a dwelling.

(6) Nothing in this chapter prohibiting discrimination based on families with children status applies to housing for older persons as defined by the federal Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 3607 (b)(1) through (3), as amended by the Housing for Older Persons Act of 1995, P.L. 104-76, as enacted on December 28, 1995.

It is an unlawful practice to coerce, intimidate, threaten or interfere with any person in the exercise or enjoyment of, or on account of his or her having exercised or enjoyed, or on account of his or her having aided or encouraged any other person in the exercise or enjoyment of, rights regarding real estate transactions, regardless of the merits of the underlying claim, contentions or allegations at issue.

Some real estate firms have a practice of sending letters, post cards or printed circulars to residents of a neighborhood where they have a home listed for sale in order to obtain referrals of prospective buyers of the home. Such a practice does not necessarily discriminate against persons on the basis of race, creed, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender expression or gender identity, marital status, families with children status, the presence of a sensory, mental or physical disability or the use of a trained dog guide or service animal by a disabled person. However, the practice can have a discriminatory effect, and thereby constitute an unfair practice in a real estate transaction within the meaning of this chapter, where:

(1) It is used only in neighborhoods occupied entirely or predominantly by persons of a single race, creed, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender expression or gender identity, marital status, families with children status, have the presence of a sensory, mental or physical disability, or who use a trained dog guide or service animal as a disabled person, or

(2) Persons of a particular race, creed, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender expression or gender identity, marital status, families with children status, have the presence of a sensory, mental or physical disability, or use a trained dog guide or service animal as a disabled person living in the same neighborhood are not sent solicitations, or

(3) The content or language of the solicitation invites, promotes or perpetuates residential segregation or discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender expression or gender identity, marital status, families with children status, the presence of a sensory, mental or physical disability, or the use of a trained dog guide or service animal by a disabled person.

Residential segregation on the basis of race, creed, national origin or other ethnic classification is rooted in the history of this country and fixed in the patterns of thought of many people. The content and language of a solicitation of names of prospective purchasers directed to neighbors of a house listed for sale, must be examined in this context in assessing whether the solicitation constitutes an unfair practice within the meaning of RCW 49.60.222 and WAC 162-36-010. A solicitation which indicates that the recipient of the solicitation can control the type of persons who will move into the neighborhood by referring appropriate prospective buyers, is likely to be understood as an invitation to discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender expression or gender identity, marital status, families with children status, the presence of a sensory, mental or physical disability, or the use of a trained dog guide or service animal by a disabled person. Phrases such as "uphold the standards of the community" (when the "standards" are unspecified) are likely to be understood the same way. Accordingly, it is an unfair practice under RCW 49.60.222 and WAC 162-36-010 for the content or language of a neighborhood solicitation to:

(1) Suggest in any way that the solicitor, buyer or seller has the power to control the type or character of the person or persons to whom the property involved may be sold;

(2) Invite or provoke discriminatory feelings, actions, or responses from the person or persons being solicited;

(3) Make reference to an assumed standard of the community which the solicitor, buyer or seller must or will uphold, unless the particular community standard is identified specifically, and the standard does not have the effect of excluding persons of a particular race, creed, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender expression or gender identity, marital status, families with children status, the presence of a sensory, mental or physical disability, or the use of a trained dog guide or service animal by a disabled person.