Question 1

When do you hand an open house visitor the agency disclosure?

Accepted Answer

Louisiana ties this to the conversation, not to the event. The Commission rule says you provide the agency disclosure informational pamphlet or the agency disclosure form at the time substantive contact is made, and it defines substantive contact right there in the same sentence: the point where the customer divulges specific financial qualifications, or motives or objectives, that could harm their bargaining position if the other party to the transaction heard them. So the trigger is a visitor telling you what they can afford or why they are moving, not the hello at the door. That same sentence also carves out anything performed as a ministerial act as defined in R.S. 9:3891(12), which is worth reading before you assume opening the house starts the clock. Then comes the paperwork most agents skip: the recipient signs and dates the pamphlet or form, you sign as a witness, and you keep it for five years. If you send it by email or other electronic transmission instead, keep a document verifying the time and date of receipt. And if the visitor refuses to sign or refuses to provide that document, write up the nature of the proposed real estate transaction, the time and date you provided it, and the reason they gave, and retain that for five years too.

Question 2

Can you call or text an open house visitor afterwards?

Accepted Answer

Louisiana's telemarketing chapter defines a telephonic solicitation broadly: any voice or data communication made by a telephonic solicitor to a residential telephonic subscriber for the purpose of encouraging a sale or rental of or investment in property, consumer goods, or services. It is written around voice or data communications rather than around phone calls specifically, so do not assume the Monday morning follow-up text sits outside it. The same section then lists what is not a solicitation, and the first item is a communication made in response to an express request of the person called, with a separate carve out for any person with whom you have an existing business relationship, or a prior business relationship that was terminated or lapsed within six months of the call. A stranger who signed your sheet is neither of those by default, which makes the sign-in form the place to fix it: ask in plain words for permission to call and text, and keep the record showing they said yes.

Question 3

Do you need a written buyer agreement before showing a visitor around?

Accepted Answer

Louisiana wrote this into its own license law rather than leaving it to the national settlement. Since August 19, 2024 a buyer agreement has to be executed between a broker and a buyer, it has to include the amount of compensation payable to the broker or the manner in which that amount will be calculated, and the section does not apply when a person leases or seeks to lease a home, or leases or purchases property other than a home. What the section does not do is tie the requirement to a tour, a showing or an open house, so walking a visitor through a listing you are holding open for the seller is not what the statute itself keys on. Who counts as a buyer for this section is defined separately at R.S. 37:1431(6)(b), so read that before deciding a doorway conversation has made someone your buyer. Check your own MLS rules alongside the statute too, because they can set a stricter trigger than state law does.

Question 4

What do you owe a visitor whose details you keep?

Accepted Answer

Two standing duties in this section reach a visitor list. Any person that conducts business in the state, or that owns or licenses computerized data that includes personal information, has to implement and maintain reasonable security procedures and practices appropriate to the nature of the information, and has to take all reasonable steps to destroy those records once they are no longer to be retained, by shredding, erasing or otherwise making the information unreadable or undecipherable. A sign-in list living on the laptop at your door is computerized data, so decide up front how long you keep a visitor list and actually delete it on that schedule instead of letting three years of open houses pile up in one file. What counts as personal information is defined separately at R.S. 51:3073, so read that section before assuming a name and a phone number puts you inside or outside the duty.

Open house rules for Louisiana agents

When do you hand an open house visitor the agency disclosure?

Can you call or text an open house visitor afterwards?

Do you need a written buyer agreement before showing a visitor around?

What do you owe a visitor whose details you keep?

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