The Buyer Agreement Isn't Paperwork Anymore, It's Part of Follow-Up

A great first reply that never gets to a signed agreement doesn't get you to a showing.

What actually changed

Since August 17, 2024, under the NAR settlement, an agent working with a buyer can't tour a home with them, in person or on a live virtual tour, without a signed written agreement first. That agreement has to spell out, clearly and specifically, what the buyer is paying or how that's calculated, what the agent will actually do, and how long the relationship lasts. Buyer-side compensation no longer gets posted on the MLS, so it's negotiated directly in that agreement instead. As of 2026 this is still the rule agents are working under, not a temporary change that quietly went away.

One real exception worth knowing: talking to an agent at an open house or asking general questions about their services doesn't trigger the requirement. It kicks in specifically once a buyer and agent start touring homes together with intent, not at the first hello.

Why this belongs in the follow-up conversation, not a separate one

Before this rule, the agreement was paperwork you got to once things were serious, somewhere after the third or fourth real conversation. Now it has to happen before the first showing, which means it's effectively part of qualifying a lead, not a step that comes after. A fast, warm first reply that never turns into a signed agreement doesn't actually get you anywhere you can act on, you still can't show the buyer a single house.

The practical shift: send it early, chase the signature the way you'd chase any other reply, and treat an unsigned lead as "not yet showable" rather than assuming it'll get handled once you're both in the car. Showing a home without it in hand puts your commission and, depending on your state, your license on the line, not a risk worth taking to avoid one more message.

The gap this usually falls into

Nobody skips this on purpose. It falls through because it's one more thing to remember on top of an already-full follow-up sequence, and unlike a text or a call, a signature has no natural moment where it "just happens." A lead can seem fully engaged, replying to every message, and still not have signed anything, because nobody explicitly asked and tracked whether they had.

What that looks like built

Lead Response sends the agreement inside the same flow as the rest of follow-up, chases the signature the same way it chases a reply, and flags any lead who hasn't signed so a showing never gets booked ahead of it by accident.

Sources