California (CA) · Open house rules

Open house rules for California agents

What California asks of an agent at the door: when the agency disclosure form has to change hands, what makes a follow-up text legal, when a written buyer representation agreement is due, and what a digital sign-in owes a visitor.

Last reviewed August 29, 2026Every claim links to a primary source

This is not legal advice

We are software people, not lawyers. This page is a plain reading of public California sources, gathered so you can go read them yourself. Rules change, and how any rule applies to your situation is a question for your broker, your association, or an attorney licensed in California.

When do you hand a visitor the agency disclosure?

California keys this disclosure to the substance of the relationship rather than to the event. The statutory Disclosure Regarding Real Estate Agency Relationship form says in its own printed text that the law requires each agent with whom you have more than a casual relationship to present the form. The section sets no open house specific trigger, so the real question is whether the conversation in front of you has moved past casual, and the practical move is to keep printed copies at the sign-in table instead of hunting for one after it has.

The law requires each agent with whom you have more than a casual relationship to present you with this disclosure form.
California Civil Code 2079.16 (opens the source in a new tab)

Checked at the source on August 29, 2026

Can you text an open house visitor afterwards?

California has its own text message rule sitting on top of the federal ones. Business and Professions Code 17538.41 restricts sending a text message advertisement to a number assigned to a California resident, and its exemption for a business that already has a relationship with the subscriber applies only if that subscriber is also offered an option not to receive those texts. Both halves have to be true at once, so collect the number from the visitor at the door rather than from a purchased list, and put the opt out line in the first follow up text you send rather than the fifth.

This section shall not apply to text messages transmitted by a business, candidate, or political committee that has an existing relationship with the subscriber if the subscriber is offered an option not to receive text messages from that business, candidate, or political committee.
California Business and Professions Code 17538.41 (opens the source in a new tab)

Checked at the source on August 29, 2026

Does a visitor have to sign a buyer agreement first?

California names two different moments for the written buyer broker representation agreement, and neither one is attending an open house. The Department of Real Estate says the legal requirement effective January 1, 2025 is that a buyer's agent sign the agreement as soon as practicable and no later than the execution of the buyer's offer, and it flags that the trade association practice runs earlier by requiring the agreement before an agent tours a home with a buyer. The advisory does not address open house attendance either way, so the line to watch is the tour: agreeing to go show that visitor other properties is the point where the earlier of those two triggers comes into play.

all buyers' agents in California will be required to sign a buyer-broker representation agreement with their buyer clients as soon as practicable, but no later than the execution of the buyer's offer to purchase real property. [Note that the timing in this legal requirement is different from the trade association practice, which requires a buyer-broker representation agreement before an agent tours a home with a buyer.]
California Department of Real Estate licensee advisory (opens the source in a new tab)

Checked at the source on August 29, 2026

Does your digital sign-in need a privacy policy?

If your sign-in runs on a website or an app rather than a clipboard, California's online privacy law reaches it. Business and Professions Code 22575 requires an operator of a commercial website or online service that collects personally identifiable information from Californians to conspicuously post its privacy policy, and the same section sets out what that policy has to cover, starting with the categories of information collected and the categories of third parties it may be shared with. Whether that duty lands on you or on the vendor turns on who counts as the operator, so before your first open house open your own sign-in page on your phone and confirm you can find the privacy link when a visitor asks where their number is going.

An operator of a commercial Web site or online service that collects personally identifiable information through the Internet about individual consumers residing in California who use or visit its commercial Web site or online service shall conspicuously post its privacy policy on its Web site
California Business and Professions Code 22575 (opens the source in a new tab)

Checked at the source on August 29, 2026

How this page is put together

  • Every claim above carries a link to a primary source, plus the exact words from that source that support it. If a claim cannot be quoted, it is not on this page.
  • Each claim shows the date a human last opened that link and confirmed the quote still says what it says.
  • We only cover what we could source. A topic you were hoping to find may be one we have not confirmed yet, so treat this as a starting point rather than a complete list of everything California expects of you.

Found something wrong or out of date? Tell us and we will fix it or take it down. support@openhouseconsole.com

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