Question 1

When do you hand a visitor the agency disclosure?

Accepted Answer

Montana ties this to negotiations rather than to the front door. At an open house you are working the listing side, and the initial written disclosure on that side already went to the seller at the time the listing agreement was executed. What the visitor is owed is the subsequent disclosure, and 37-51-314 says that one goes to the buyer or buyer agent at the time negotiations commence. Subsection (7) sets what it has to carry: it must be written, it must identify the type of relationship being disclosed, and it must have the signature of the buyer it is given to and the date. A conversation at an open house can turn into a negotiation in one sentence, so keep printed copies at the sign-in table instead of going to look for the form after that happens.

Question 2

Can you call an open house visitor afterwards?

Accepted Answer

Montana runs a state no-call list, and its telemarketing definition turns on consent and recency. A call is not a telephone solicitation under this part at all when the person gave prior express invitation or permission, or when you have had a business contact with them within the past 180 days. That is what makes the sign-in worth doing properly, because it is where the permission gets captured, and a follow-up that goes out this week sits far more comfortably than one that surfaces six months later. The same definition separately carves out a person licensed by Montana who is setting or attempting to set an appointment relating to that licensed profession, so a call proposing an actual showing time fits that carve-out far better than a general check-in does. Two limits are worth holding on to: this statute reaches voice communication over a telephone line, and every carve-out in it is a carve-out from Montana's own law only.

Question 3

Does a visitor have to sign a buyer agreement first?

Accepted Answer

Not to walk through the house. Montana's requirement attaches to the work rather than to the doorway, because 37-51-313 says a licensee must obtain a written buyer broker agreement or a written listing agreement before performing the acts of a buyer agent or a seller agent. The same section also recognizes a statutory broker, who is not the agent of the buyer or the seller but still owes both of them disclosure of adverse material facts and reasonable care, so answering a visitor's questions about the property does not by itself make you their agent. The moment to get something signed is when you agree to advise that visitor, negotiate on their behalf, or go find them other properties. Note that this is Montana's own licensing statute rather than the MLS settlement rule, and the two are worth keeping separate in your head.

Question 4

How long do you have to keep what a visitor gives you?

Accepted Answer

Montana's Board of Realty Regulation runs a long clock on real estate paperwork. Its forms guide for brokers and salespersons sends licensees to ARM 24.210.601(1) and puts real estate related documents, including agency agreements and all other real estate related documents, on an eight year retention period measured from the latter of the date of receipt or the date the transaction was completed. The same guide's checklist of what a seller agent file should contain names the Agency Disclosure and the Subsequent Agency Disclosure by statute, so the disclosure form a visitor signs at your table is a file document sitting on that clock rather than something that ends when the event does. Those checklists name transaction documents and disclosure forms, not a visitor list, so treat the two differently: let the signed paperwork live in the file, and keep the raw sign-in contacts down to the people you are genuinely still working.

Open house rules for Montana agents

When do you hand a visitor the agency disclosure?

Can you call an open house visitor afterwards?

Does a visitor have to sign a buyer agreement first?

How long do you have to keep what a visitor gives you?

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Open house rules where you also work

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