Question 1

When do you have to hand a Missouri visitor the Broker Disclosure Form?

Accepted Answer

At a Missouri open house on a residential listing you are normally the seller's agent meeting buyers who have not entered into a brokerage relationship with anyone, and the Missouri Real Estate Commission's rule tells you to put your agency alternatives in front of those visitors on the commission's own Broker Disclosure Form. The rule sets a deadline that does not wait for the conversation to get serious. The form is due upon obtaining any personal or financial information, or before the signing of a brokerage service agreement, whichever occurs first. A sign-in asking for a name, a phone number and an email is that kind of personal information on the plain reading of the rule, so keep current copies of the form beside the sign-in and give one to every unrepresented visitor rather than saving it for the people who seem serious.

Question 2

Can you call or text a Missouri open house visitor afterwards?

Accepted Answer

Missouri's no-call law runs on the term telephone solicitation, and the definition feeding sections 407.1095 to 407.1110 expressly covers short messaging service (SMS) and multimedia messaging service (MMS), so a follow-up text is treated the same as a voice call. Two of the carve outs are the ones that matter at the door, and both are written around a residential subscriber: a communication sent with that subscriber's prior express invitation or permission, and one from a person or entity the subscriber has had a business contact with in the past one hundred eighty days or has a current business or personal relationship with. The sign-in is where you earn the first of those. Ask the visitor to opt in to being contacted, record that they did and when, and keep that record attached to the lead, because permission you cannot evidence later is not worth much.

Question 3

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

Accepted Answer

Missouri puts the written buyer agency agreement ahead of the work rather than alongside it. Before engaging in any acts enumerated in section 339.010, a designated broker acting as a single agent for a buyer or tenant has to enter into a written agency agreement with that buyer first. Hosting the open house does not by itself trip that, because the statute excepts ministerial acts as defined in section 339.710, and that definition names attending an open house and responding to questions about the property from a consumer, along with setting an appointment to view property. So greeting visitors and answering their questions about the house is fine with nothing signed. The moment the conversation turns into you acting as that buyer's agent, stop and get the written agency agreement in place first.

Question 4

Who holds the paperwork from a Missouri sign-in table, and for how long?

Accepted Answer

Missouri's records rule is written about transaction records rather than about a lead list, so do not assume an open house sign-in list is automatically covered by it. What the rule does settle is the paperwork from the door that ends up in a transaction file. Every broker has to retain true copies of the records, contracts, brokerage relationship agreements and correspondence relating to each real estate transaction the broker has handled for at least three years, and those records have to be made available for inspection by the commission and its authorized agents during usual business hours at the broker's regular place of business. The signed Broker Disclosure Form you hand a visitor who goes on to make an offer is one of those, so it belongs somewhere your principal broker can actually produce it and not only on your own phone. For the rest of the list, retention and consent pull in opposite directions, so collect only the details you will genuinely use and ask permission to contact the visitor at the same moment you take them.

Open house rules for Missouri agents

When do you have to hand a Missouri visitor the Broker Disclosure Form?

Can you call or text a Missouri open house visitor afterwards?

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

Who holds the paperwork from a Missouri sign-in table, and for how long?

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Open house rules where you also work

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