Question 1

Who do you tell you represent, and when?

Accepted Answer

When you are working an open house solely as the seller's agent, Rule 8.1 puts the disclosure duty on you rather than on the visitor. Tell people you represent the seller, and do it early, because the rule times the disclosure specifically so that you do not first collect information a buyer would reasonably expect stays confidential from your seller. The rule names the examples itself: their needs and motivations, their negotiating strategy, and their financial situation. That is most of what gets talked about at a door. Saying it out loud when someone walks in is fine as a start, but Rule 8.1(b) then requires you to reduce the disclosure to writing and to keep evidence that it happened, and Rule 8.1(c) requires it to be made before that visitor signs any document related to the transaction, such as an offer.

Question 2

Can you call or text a visitor afterwards?

Accepted Answer

Arkansas merged its own do not call list into the federal registry, so a visitor who registered nationally is covered by both the federal and the Arkansas rules. That matters when you follow up, because a call pitching your services is a call to sell a service, and the Attorney General says sellers and telemarketers may not call a registered number for that purpose. The exemption you can actually rely on at an open house is the one for someone who has given prior written express permission, which is why a plain consent line next to the phone field on your sign-in form is worth more than it looks. Do not lean on the established business relationship exemption for a visitor who only signed in. The Attorney General describes that one as running 18 months from the last purchase, delivery or payment, and a person who walked through a house has made none of those. Keep an internal do not call list too, because a person can ask to be added to it and you have to honor the request.

Question 3

Does an open house visitor need to sign a buyer agreement?

Accepted Answer

What AREC's rules regulate here is the agreement itself, so the requirements attach at the point you agree to represent an open house visitor. Rule 10.2 requires a specific determinable duration or a specific expiration date on every written agency agreement or contract and on any extension of one, and it names buyer representation agreements as an example, so one cannot be written open ended. Rule 10.10 separately requires a licensee to see that the exact agreement of the parties regarding real estate is in writing, giving exclusive agency agreements as its example, and strongly recommends that non-exclusive agency agreements be put in writing as well. Check the rest with your principal broker before you sign anything at a door.

Question 4

Who owns the sign-in list, and how long do you keep it?

Accepted Answer

Rule 10.7 is written about the firm's transaction records rather than about a lead list, so do not assume an open house sign-in list is automatically covered by it. What the rule does settle is the paperwork from the door that ends up in a transaction file. Those records are the principal broker's responsibility rather than the individual agent's, they have to be kept for three years or longer if another law requires it, and they have to be open to inspection by the Commission's investigative staff. Keeping them in electronic form is explicitly allowed, as long as a copy can be produced when it is asked for, so a digital sign-in is not a problem on its own. The piece that reaches the door directly is Rule 8.1(b), which requires you to keep evidence of the agency disclosure you made, so file that alongside rather than relying on memory.

Open house rules for Arkansas agents

Who do you tell you represent, and when?

Can you call or text a visitor afterwards?

Does an open house visitor need to sign a buyer agreement?

Who owns the sign-in list, and how long do you keep it?

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Open house rules where you also work

Your disclosure text, on the screen, at every open house