Pennsylvania (PA) · Open house rules

Open house rules for Pennsylvania agents

What Pennsylvania asks of an agent at the door: handing every visitor the Consumer Notice at the initial interview and keeping the signed acknowledgment, the state Do Not Call list sitting behind your follow-up call, when buyer agency actually begins, and how long records live.

Last reviewed September 1, 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 Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania.

Hand over the Consumer Notice at the initial interview

Pennsylvania requires you to provide every consumer with the State Real Estate Commission's Consumer Notice at the initial interview, so at an open house carry the form with you rather than leaving it on a table. Have the visitor sign the acknowledgment at the bottom. Keep a copy of the signed or refused acknowledgment for six months and give the visitor a copy of the entire disclosure summary. The form is headed THIS IS NOT A CONTRACT and it tells the visitor in plain terms that a business relationship is not presumed, so signing it does not hire you.

Licensees shall provide the consumer with the Consumer Notice at their initial interview.
49 Pa. Code § 35.336, Pennsylvania Code, State Real Estate Commission (opens the source in a new tab)

Checked at the source on September 1, 2026

Pennsylvania runs its own Do Not Call list

Pennsylvania maintains a state Do Not Call list, and telemarketers register with the Office of Attorney General. A call to an open house visitor made to sell your services is a telephone solicitation call under state law, so a telemarketer calling Pennsylvania subscribers has to buy the list from the list administrator and strip every listed name from their calling lists within 30 days of receiving each quarterly update. The state definition excludes a call made in response to the person's express request and a call to someone the caller has had an established business relationship with in the past 12 months. That is why the sign-in form should ask for permission to follow up and record that the visitor gave it. A violation carries a civil penalty of up to $1,000, or $3,000 if the person contacted is age 60 or older.

Every telemarketer that calls residential, business or wireless subscribers in Pennsylvania is required to purchase the list from the list administrator. The telemarketer must then remove every name on the “Do Not Call” list from their calling lists within 30 days of receiving the list. A violation of the law carries a civil penalty of up to $1,000, or $3,000 if the person contacted is age 60 or older.
Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General, Telemarketing Frequently Asked Questions (opens the source in a new tab)

Checked at the source on September 1, 2026

Buyer agency starts in writing, not at the door

In Pennsylvania a licensee becomes a buyer's agent by entering into a written agreement with the buyer, so an open house visitor is not your buyer client merely because you showed them through the house. If you intend to represent them, get that written agreement signed, because entering into it is what starts the representation. Once it is signed, every licensee employed by your broker acts as that buyer's agent unless a licensee has been named a designated agent.

Upon entering into a written agreement with the buyer/tenant, each licensee employed by the broker will act as a buyer's agent unless a licensee has been named, or is thereafter named, a designated agent
49 Pa. Code § 35.313, Pennsylvania Code, duties of buyer's agent (opens the source in a new tab)

Checked at the source on September 1, 2026

The Consumer Notice you collect is a broker record

The paperwork you collect at the door is a broker record, not your own private file. A broker has to keep records pertaining to a real estate transaction for at least three years after it closes, and the acknowledgment portion of the Consumer Notice from a visitor who never ends up in a transaction carries its own shorter six month clock. The broker has to produce those records for the Commission on written request or during an office inspection, so keep that paperwork somewhere the brokerage can actually reach and not only on your personal phone.

A broker or cemetery broker shall retain records pertaining to a real estate transaction for at least 3 years following consummation except for the following which shall be retained for 6 months:
49 Pa. Code § 35.286, Pennsylvania Code, retention and production of records (opens the source in a new tab)

Checked at the source on September 1, 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 Pennsylvania expects of you.

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