Exemptions are narrow, and conditional
Congress exempted a few small-scale private transactions from the Act's reach. Because they cut against the Act's purpose, they are read strictly: every condition must be met, and no exemption covers everything an owner does.
The Mrs. Murphy owner-occupied exemption
42 U.S.C. 3603(b)(2) exempts units in a dwelling with living quarters for no more than four families living independently, where the owner actually maintains and occupies one of them as a residence.
An owner living in one unit of her own fourplex and renting the other three herself is covered. The threshold is four families, not two.
The single-family house exemption
42 U.S.C. 3603(b)(1) is available only to a private individual owner who does not own more than three single-family houses at any one time, who uses no broker in any manner, and who publishes no discriminatory advertising. A separate 24-month single-sale limit applies to an owner who was not the most recent resident.
An investor who owns four single-family rentals and sells one himself fails immediately, because four is more than three. Avoiding a broker is necessary, not sufficient, and the 24-month rule cannot rescue an owner who flunks the three-house count.
Advertising is never exempt
The exam trap: exemptions reach refusals to rent and the terms of rental, never advertising. 42 U.S.C. 3603(b) conditions them on the absence of any publication, posting, or mailing that violates 42 U.S.C. 3604(c). An otherwise exempt owner who advertises "Christian tenants preferred" violates 3604(c), which reaches anyone who makes, prints, publishes, or causes to be published such a notice.
The 55-and-older housing exemption
Housing for older persons is exempt from the familial status provisions only. The 55-and-older version requires at least 80% of the occupied units to have at least one resident aged 55 or older.
Worked example: a community has 200 total units, 180 of them occupied. 180 × 0.80 = 144 units. The trap answer, 160, applies 80% to all 200 units. Demanding all 180 states the separate 62-and-older rule, which requires housing solely occupied by persons 62 or older.