THE NAR SETTLEMENT AND WRITTEN BUYER AGREEMENTS
August 19, 2024

The following comes from the legal branch of the North Carolina Association of Realtors related to written buyer agreements.

Under the new MLS rules, an agent “working with” a buyer must have a written buyer agreement prior to touring a property.

The written buyer agreement needs to be an agency agreement. In North Carolina brokers may not undertake to provide any brokerage services without an agency agreement. For transactions prior to these new rules being implemented, agents were often working for a buyer under an oral agency agreement up until the time an offer was going to be submitted. Now that agents working with a buyer must have a written agreement pursuant to MLS rules, the written buyer agreement must constitute an agency agreement to comply with North Carolina law.

For live walk-through virtual tours by Brokers for those buyers at a distance, a written buyer agreement to do a virtual tour requires a buyer agreement to be signed. The law applies to Brokers whether the prospective Buyer is physically at the location or elsewhere watching a live virtual tour walk-through.

The does not require a written buyer agency agreement for recorded virtual tours. A Broker agent sharing information already available online and the Broker does not go to the subject property.

A written buyer agreement to show a commercial property or vacant land does not apply to a written buyer agreement, it is only needed when Brokers are touring a residential property. When selling commercial property or vacant land, there i