Question 1

Do I have to tell an open house visitor who I represent?

Accepted Answer

Maine ties the disclosure to the conversation rather than to any contract. Once you have substantive communication with a prospective buyer or seller about a real estate transaction, whether face to face at the door or later by written or electronic message, you must give that person a copy of the Maine Real Estate Commission's Real Estate Brokerage Relationships Form. The same rule tells you to discuss the content of the form, ascertain the visitor's intent regarding representation, and complete the statement on the form acknowledging that they were given the information Maine law requires. Keep a stack at the sign-in station so this happens at the door instead of days later. Section 9(3) lists narrow exceptions, including land without a residential dwelling unit, land with more than four residential dwelling units, and cases where you know or may reasonably assume another licensee already gave that person the form.

Question 2

Can I call a visitor after the open house?

Accepted Answer

Maine's Do Not Call law reaches the sign-in sheet itself. Anyone who obtains consumer information that includes phone numbers has to exclude the numbers sitting on the current federal or state do-not-call registry, so the list needs scrubbing before you start dialing, not after a complaint. Two exemptions in the same section do most of the practical work: a call made in response to and at the express request of the person called, and a call to someone you have an established business relationship with, which section 1499-B defines to include a consumer's inquiry about products or services you offer within the three months immediately preceding the call. That is why a visitor who ticks a box asking you to call is the cleanest path, and why a follow-up in the days after the open house stands on far better footing than one made half a year later. When you do call, immediately give your real first and last name and the name of the business you are soliciting for, because failing to comply with any provision of this section is an unfair and deceptive act under the Maine Unfair Trade Practices Act that the Attorney General can act on.

Question 3

Does showing a visitor through the house make them my client?

Accepted Answer

No, and Maine settled this in statute in 2005, long before the 2024 national practice changes. A brokerage providing real estate brokerage services is presumed to be acting as a transaction broker unless it has agreed, in a written brokerage agreement, to represent someone as a client, and client representation cannot be created orally, by implication, or by either side simply assuming it. Maine also spells out that a seller agent may perform ministerial acts for a buyer, such as preparing an offer and conveying it to the seller, and that doing so does not form a brokerage agreement with that buyer and does not make the seller agent a transaction broker for them (32 M.R.S. sec. 13273(2)(C)). If a visitor does want you to represent them as a buyer, get a written agreement signed first: Maine requires it to carry the signature of the client to be charged, the terms and conditions of the brokerage services, the method or amount of compensation, the date the agreement expires, and a statement that the agreement creates an agency-client relationship (32 M.R.S. sec. 13177-A). Until that is signed, the visitor is not your client.

Question 4

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

Accepted Answer

Treat what you collect at the door as a brokerage record rather than a private contact list on your phone. Maine Real Estate Commission rules put all brokerage records, including transaction files and other brokerage-related records, under the control of the designated broker and require them to be made available to the Commission's Director on request, so the sign-in list is your designated broker's to control rather than yours alone. Anything that becomes part of a transaction file, including written documents and electronic messages such as email and text messages in any format, must be kept for three calendar years after all funds held in connection with the transaction are disbursed or until the transaction concludes, whichever last occurs, and records may be kept electronically as long as they stay retrievable and can be legibly printed. Note that Maine's breach notice law keys on Social Security numbers, driver's license or state ID numbers, and account or card numbers (10 M.R.S. sec. 1347), so a plain list of names, emails, and phone numbers usually sits outside it, which is a reason to ask for only what you will actually use rather than a reason to be casual with it.

Open house rules for Maine agents

Do I have to tell an open house visitor who I represent?

Can I call a visitor after the open house?

Does showing a visitor through the house make them my client?

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

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Open house rules where you also work

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