Is the cost of the furniture worth having to defend your actions to your realtor association?

The few hundred you spend getting a lawyer to do it right for you will save you thousands to defend a lawsuit on something you "downloaded" from the internet.Any time you "pool" money, 99.999% of the time, it will be called a security. 

They say that their tax professional tells them they could "defend it and win in court".

They're hoping you'll get scared and offer to buy them off for $1,000 instead of paying $2,000 for an attorney to defend you in court where you could possibly lose even more.I wouldn't fall for it.

However that means little in most cases, unless the defendant just pays...but if he was going to he would have already, right? 

My comment back, and everyone since, has been to defend myself, as I would never suggest illegal activity to anyone.  

It needs to be written down so you can objectively look at each potential tenant and defend yourself if you are ever accused of bias or discrimination (the illegal kind).

IL  OR  FLA  OH  others  MD  TX  and many others could give a rip unless of course someone files a complaint then your going to have to hire a lawyer to defend yourself. 

Instead of Rude Title providing paperwork they spent their time arguing and defending their partners who bring them vulnerable buyers and sellers.

So I would explain all this to a representative willing to defend their determinations in an audit and cover all fees/fines/interest.