advice with mom in law

[Sam Tamayo]

Hello, a little background on my situation. I've owned my first home, somewhat of a starter home 3 BD/3BA PUD. For many years I rented it out. Some years ago, my mother in law ran into some housing challenges and we moved her in there. I'm currently looking at another investment property that will have a granny unit or similar arrangement where I may be able to house her for much less than a 3 bed/bath 1300 sqft home cost to us. It's nice and roomy for a single older woman, but the expense is impacting our budget. Therefore, we are about to begin a search for a roommate for her to offset some of that total expense. Based off everything I've learned on these forums, I will plan to stay as compliant as I know how; I do have another investment property with tenants, so I am somewhat experienced. I was going to search for this roommate and use a very similar approach with a standard CA application, perform a credit and background check, require first, last, deposit. My mother in law is a bit older and it would be great to have someone with similar demographics that would be compatible with her lifestyle. Am I able to market her lifestyle and seek out a similar match? Or would I get into the discriminatory issues? Has anyone ever done anything similar to this or able to give me some words of wisdom? Thanks!

[Ryan Dossey]

You want to be careful that you don't do any "steering". 

I would suggest that you could have your MIL reach out to her circle of friends and see if anyone is looking. That's the safest way to get her a roommate that could also be a peer.