Do I need a written buyer agreement when the buyer’s sister is touring the home but not the buyer?
QUESTION: A prospective buyer contacted me who lives out of state. This buyer wants me to take his sister on a tour of the home so that he can decide whether he wants to come down and visit the home himself. Do I need a written buyer agreement in this scenario? If so, who needs to sign it, the buyer or the sister?
ANSWER: You will need to verify with your MLS, but we believe the best answer is that you should have a written buyer agreement with the buyer and not the sister.
Under the new MLS rules implemented under the settlement, agents must have a written buyer agreement prior to touring a home when the agent is “working with” the buyer. According to FAQ 73, the “working with” language is meant to including agents who are providing “full or limited brokerage representation or services for the buyer (including transaction brokerage)—such as identifying potential properties, arranging for the buyer to tour a property, performing or facilitating negotiations on behalf of the buyer, presenting offers by the buyer, or other services for the buyer.”
The critical issue in your scenario is what it means to “tour.” FAQ 74 states that “touring a home means when the buyer and/or the MLS Participant, or other agent, at the direction of the MLS Participant working with the buyer, enter the house. This includes when the MLS Participant or other agent, at the direction of the MLS Participant, working with the buyer enters the home to provide a live, virtual tour to a buyer not physically present.”
In your case, the sister is acting as a limited agent for purposes of gathering and relaying information to the buyer about the home during a live tour. Though the settlement language is not explicit about this set of facts, we believe the spirit of the settlement and the resulting new MLS rules would consider this is a live tour as to the buyer, or at least a virtual tour (especially if the buyer is participating by live video on the tour). It would therefore follow that a written buyer agreement is likely necessary under your MLS’s interpretation of its rules. As discussed in more detail in this Q&A, a written buyer agreement must be an agency agreement under the License Law in North Carolina.
Release Date: 9/26/2024
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