Question 1

What do you have to hand a Delaware open house visitor?

Accepted Answer

Delaware writes the open house into the statute itself. Keep copies of the Commission's Consumer Information Statement out on the sign-in table, because the law requires the CIS to be available to consumers at open houses. You do not have to press one into every hand. But the moment a visitor asks for more than factual information about the property, or expresses interest in making an offer on it, that same subsection requires you to personally present the CIS right there. The CIS is the Commission's own form, and section 2938(a) says that at a minimum it summarizes what a licensee is permitted or prohibited from doing. Away from the open house the deadline in the same section is the earlier of the first scheduled appointment, the first showing of a property, or making an offer.

Question 2

Can you text an open house visitor afterwards?

Accepted Answer

Delaware's Real Estate Commission defines a licensee's advertising broadly enough that switching channels does not get you out of the advertising rules. The definition expressly names telephone solicitation, emails and text messaging, so the Monday morning marketing text you send an open house visitor sits under the Commission's advertising rules the same way a listing ad does. Read that message before you send it the way you would read an ad. Ask at the sign-in how each visitor wants to be reached, record the answer, and stop contacting anyone who asks you to stop. Federal calling and texting consent rules apply on top of the Commission's rules, so treat the sign-in as where you capture permission, not as a substitute for it.

Question 3

Does a visitor have to sign a buyer agreement first?

Accepted Answer

What Delaware's real estate statute fixes is the paperwork behind getting paid, not permission to walk someone through a house. Showing a visitor through the open house you are hosting does not by itself entitle you to compensation from that visitor. Delaware law says no buyer owes a broker compensation unless that buyer has entered into a written brokerage agreement with the brokerage specifying the compensation terms, and the same subsection adds that the source of compensation does not by itself determine brokerage relationships. The practical read is that the moment to stop and paper the relationship is when the conversation turns from this house to seeing other ones. Your MLS and your brokerage almost certainly impose their own written buyer agreement rule that runs earlier than the statute, so check theirs before you assume the statute is the whole answer.

Question 4

What does a digital sign-in owe a Delaware visitor?

Accepted Answer

A digital sign-in collects exactly what the Delaware Online Privacy and Protection Act calls personally identifiable information, a definition that names a first and last name, a physical address, an e-mail address and a telephone number. Who owes the duty turns on who owns the page. The Act defines an operator as the person who owns the website or app, and expressly excludes a third party that hosts or manages it, or processes the information, on the owner's behalf. So if you collect sign-ins through a vendor's app the operator duty is normally the vendor's, and if the sign-in page runs on a site or app you own it is yours. An operator that collects this information from Delaware users has to make its privacy policy conspicuously available, and that policy has to identify the categories of information collected, the categories of third parties it may be shared with, and its effective date. Conspicuously available is defined in the Act as a privacy link on the homepage or first significant page, or any hyperlink displayed so a reasonable person would notice it, so keep it visible next to the sign-in rather than buried. Tell visitors at the door that you will be following up, and keep the list to the people who actually signed it.

Open house rules for Delaware agents

What do you have to hand a Delaware open house visitor?

Can you text an open house visitor afterwards?

Does a visitor have to sign a buyer agreement first?

What does a digital sign-in owe a Delaware visitor?

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Open house rules where you also work

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