Question 1

When do you hand a visitor the agency disclosure?

Accepted Answer

Wisconsin ties this to negotiating, not to the front door. Wis. Stat. 452.135(1)(a) says no firm and no licensee associated with a firm may negotiate on behalf of a party who is not the firm's client without first giving that party a copy of the written Disclosure to Customers statement, and the statute prints that form in full. The form tells the reader they are a customer of your firm and lists seven duties you still owe them, starting with providing brokerage services fairly and honestly and including the duty to protect their confidentiality. An unrepresented open house visitor is exactly the party that section is written about, and a doorway conversation turns into negotiating faster than you can go hunt for a form, so keep printed copies of the Disclosure to Customers at the sign-in table and hand one over with the flyer.

Question 2

Can you call or text a visitor after the open house?

Accepted Answer

Wisconsin's telephone solicitation law counts a text the same as a call. Wis. Stat. 100.52(1)(i) defines a telephone solicitation as the unsolicited initiation of a telephone conversation or text message to get the recipient to buy property, goods or services, and 100.52(4)(a)2 bars a telephone solicitor from soliciting a number listed on the state do-not-call registry, which 100.52(1)(fm) defines as the Wisconsin area code portion of the national registry. The exception that matters at a sign-in table is 100.52(6)(am)1, which lifts that ban for a solicitation made to a recipient in response to the recipient's own request. So put a plain permission line next to the phone field, let the visitor tick it themselves, and keep that record, because the whole statute turns on the word unsolicited.

Question 3

Does a visitor have to sign a buyer agreement first?

Accepted Answer

In Wisconsin the written agreement the trade association points to is tied to touring a home. The Wisconsin REALTORS Association tells members that when an agent is in pre-agency, the agent and the buyer must have a written agreement before touring a home, and it publishes the WRA-PASA Pre-Agency Showing Agreement for Wisconsin Properties for exactly that purpose. The association is explicit that this writing is not a buyer agency agreement and not the Disclosure to Customers form, it is simply an agreement authorizing the agent to show properties to a buyer. So watch for the moment an open house visitor asks you to take them out to see other listings, get that showing agreement signed before the tour starts, and treat signing them as a client under a buyer agency agreement as a separate later decision.

Question 4

What do you owe a visitor whose details you keep?

Accepted Answer

Wisconsin does not tell you what to put on a sign-in sheet, but it does make you answerable for what happens to the list afterwards. Wis. Stat. 134.98(2)(a) says that when an entity that maintains or licenses personal information in this state knows that personal information in its possession has been acquired by someone it did not authorize, the entity shall make reasonable efforts to notify each subject of that information, and 134.98(3)(a) puts that notice within a reasonable time, not to exceed 45 days after the entity learns of the acquisition. The statute does carve out an acquisition that does not create a material risk of identity theft or fraud to the subject. The practical version at the door is to collect only the fields you will actually use, keep the list behind an account you sign into rather than on a clipboard, and never let the next visitor read the last one's phone number.

Open house rules for Wisconsin agents

When do you hand a visitor the agency disclosure?

Can you call or text a visitor after the open house?

Does a visitor have to sign a buyer agreement first?

What do you owe a visitor whose details you keep?

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Open house rules where you also work

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