Real estate listing video with an AI avatar: fair housing script check

Write the script about the property and check it for words that describe people before you render. A listing video with an AI presenter is still an advertisement, and the Fair Housing Act covers advertisements in any form. The Fair Housing Institute's advertising guidelines, read 2026-10-06, say it prohibits 'any notice, statement, or advertisement' indicating preference, limitation or discrimination because of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status or national origin.

What the page flags

A word check before you render

This script flags phrases from the page. It is a first pass, not a legal review, and a clean result does not make a script compliant.

import re

FLAG = ["no children", "christian roommate", "no wheelchairs",
        "restricted", "exclusive", "limited"]

def check(script: str) -> list[str]:
    low = script.lower()
    return [w for w in FLAG if re.search(r"\b" + re.escape(w) + r"\b", low)]

script = ("Welcome to 14 Maple Lane. Three bedrooms, a walk-in closet "
          "in the master bedroom, and a great view of the park.")
hits = check(script)
print("review these:", hits) if hits else print("no flagged phrases")

Rendering the video

Use the property photo as the scene. In POST /v1/avatar-1.0/talking-video, scene: { "type": "photo", "image_url": "https://..." } takes a public HTTPS photo, and product_image is optional. A video is 4-60 seconds, with the avatar presenting a script of roughly 125 words at most for 45 seconds, since Sume estimates 2.8 words a second.

Run an avatar video preview first. It shows the first-frame stills, so you can check that the composition does not imply who the home is for.

Cost

A 45-second clip without a product image costs, per Sume's pricing code on main, $8.28 at standard ($0.184 a second), $11.03 at plus ($0.245) and $24.75 at max ($0.55). Keep the property facts, price and agent details in the description, where you can edit them without a new render.

Keep the compliance check in your own workflow, ahead of the paid call. Sume renders the words you send; it does not review them for housing law. If you use a multi-scene plan, run the check on every scene's text, not only the opener.

Imagery counts too. The page asks for diverse communities, so a property photo with a neutral scene prompt is safer than a prompt that describes the kind of household the home is for. Describe the room, the light and the street, and leave buyers out of the scene text.