Kentucky (KY) · Open house rules

Open house rules for Kentucky agents

What Kentucky asks of an agent at the door: presenting the Guide to Agency Relationships and asking for the acknowledgment, the calling window that rules out an early Monday follow-up, why you cannot turn a visitor away for not signing, and how the sheet has to be destroyed afterwards.

Last reviewed August 31, 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 Kentucky 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 Kentucky.

When do you hand a Kentucky visitor the Guide to Agency Relationships?

Kentucky's own form tells you when this matters. The Commission's Guide to Agency Relationships (KREC Form 400) says on its face that it is not a contract, that a signature on it is only an acknowledgment of receipt, and that by law the licensee presenting it must ask for that signature. The same paragraph names the moment things change: before any exchange of confidential information that could be interpreted as an agency relationship, the person will be asked to consent in writing to a specific agency relationship for a contemplated transaction. So the trigger at the door is the conversation, not the event. Talking about the kitchen is fine, but once a visitor starts telling you their budget, their loan approval or why they need to move, the Guide should already be in their hands and you should already have asked for their signature, which is why copies belong on the sign-in table rather than back at the office.

This is not a contract or agreement for services. Your signature on this Guide is simply to acknowledge receipt and by law the real estate licensee presenting you this Guide must ask for your signature. Prior to the exchange of confidential information that could be interpreted as an agency relationship, you will be asked to consent in writing to a specific agency relationship for a contemplated transaction.
Kentucky Real Estate Commission, A Guide To Agency Relationships (KREC Form 400) (opens the source in a new tab)

Checked at the source on August 31, 2026

Can you call a Kentucky open house visitor the next morning?

Not before 10 a.m. Kentucky's telephone solicitation statute lists prohibited acts and practices, and two of them land squarely on open house follow-up: making a telephone solicitation to a person's residence at any time other than between 10 a.m. and 9 p.m. local time at the called person's location, and making an unsolicited telephone solicitation call to a residential number that appears in the current national Do Not Call Registry. Kentucky's window opens two hours later than the familiar federal 8 a.m. start, and it runs on the visitor's clock rather than yours, so an early Sunday callback that clears the federal rule can still break this one. Screen the numbers off your sign-in sheet against the registry before you dial. The cleanest protection is to ask on the sign-in form itself for permission to call, and keep that timestamped answer with the lead, so you are returning a request instead of cold calling a stranger.

(15) Making or causing to be made an unsolicited telephone solicitation call if the residential number for that telephone appears in the current publication of the national Do Not Call Registry maintained by the United States Federal Trade Commission; (16) Making telephone solicitations to a person's residence at any time other than between 10 a.m. - 9 p.m. local time, at the called person's location;
Kentucky Revised Statutes 367.46955, Prohibited telephone solicitation acts and practices (opens the source in a new tab)

Checked at the source on August 31, 2026

Does a Kentucky open house visitor have to sign a buyer agreement?

Not to walk through, and Kentucky's own rule pushes the other way. Commission regulation 201 KAR 11:121 lists conduct a licensee shall not engage in, and one item is refusing or prohibiting any prospective purchaser from viewing or inspecting real estate listed for sale or lease with the brokerage company the licensee is affiliated with, without the written and signed direction of the listing or leasing client. Holding your own brokerage's listing open, you cannot make a signature the price of admission unless your listing client has directed that in writing. The signing duty in that same regulation sits later, in Section 6, where the Agency Consent Agreement has to be delivered and consented to in writing before you enter a written agreement to provide brokerage services or complete, or direct the completion of, a contract, offer or lease. Your MLS or association may layer its own written buyer agreement practice on top of the state rule, so read your brokerage's policy before you host rather than improvising an answer at the door.

Refuse or prohibit any prospective purchaser from viewing or inspecting real estate listed for sale or lease with the real estate brokerage company with which the licensee is affiliated, without the written and signed direction of the listing or leasing client.
Kentucky Real Estate Commission, 201 KAR 11:121, Standards of professional conduct (opens the source in a new tab)

Checked at the source on August 31, 2026

What do you owe a visitor whose details you keep?

Kentucky puts a duty on the way out, not just the way in. When a business disposes of a customer's records that it is not required to retain, it has to take reasonable steps to destroy the portion containing personally identifiable information by shredding, erasing or otherwise making it unreadable. Treat your sign-in list that way when a lead goes cold: destroy the name, phone and email rather than dropping the paper sheet in the recycling or leaving last spring's CSV export sitting in your downloads folder. Ask your principal broker first what the brokerage is required to keep, because the duty reaches only records you are free to dispose of.

When a business disposes of, other than by storage, any customer's records that are not required to be retained, the business shall take reasonable steps to destroy, or arrange for the destruction of, that portion of the records containing personally identifiable information by shredding, erasing, or otherwise modifying the personal information in those records to make it unreadable or indecipherable through any means.
Kentucky Revised Statutes 365.725, Destruction of customer's records containing personally identifiable information (opens the source in a new tab)

Checked at the source on August 31, 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 Kentucky expects of you.

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