Nick Pelletier, 2025 chair of the Government Affairs Committee for the Massachusetts Association of Realtors (MAR), testified in support of H.343 and S.232, bills that would create fair-housing education requirements for all real-estate licensees.

Pelletier described MAR as a 100-year-old voluntary trade association with more than 22,000 members and said MAR provides fair-housing training and transactional forms designed to reduce discriminatory language. “MAR takes its support for this duty very seriously,” Pelletier said, noting MAR represents about one-third of the state's licensees and that no current licensing rule mandates fair-housing instruction at renewal.

Pelletier recounted a personal client experience he described as discrimination: a single Hispanic woman submitted a qualified rental application and received no response; an agent later asked for a cosigner and questioned why the client did not live with her biological mother. Pelletier used that example to argue for uniform, required fair-housing education across all license renewals.

Tristan Davidson, general counsel for MAR (speaking briefly), told the committee other states require fair-housing training for association members and that MAR can provide comparative data if requested. Committee members asked whether other states impose similar licensing requirements; staff offered to supply that information.

No committee vote was taken; the committee accepted testimony and reserved the bills for further consideration.