What Is a Pre-Touring Agreement in Iowa? (And Why You Have to Sign One)

A Pre-Touring Agreement is a short, no-cost agreement Iowa law requires before an agent can show you a home. Ours usually covers a single day of touring (up to 10 by mutual agreement), states compensation terms in writing, and obligates you to nothing unless you buy a home we showed you during that window.

You found a house online at 9pm, requested a tour, and an agent texted back asking you to sign something first. Nobody warned you this was coming, and now you're wondering what you're agreeing to just to walk through a front door.

You're not being hustled. Since July 1, 2024, Iowa law has required every real estate licensee to have a signed buyer agreement in place before showing a property. Every agent in the state has to ask. The difference is in what they ask you to sign.

Most brokerages hand new buyers their full representation agreement on day one. We built a shorter on-ramp instead, and this post explains exactly how it works.

Why Does Iowa Require a Signed Agreement Before a Showing?

Iowa passed the Real Estate Transparency Act in 2024, ahead of most of the country. The law amended Iowa Code 543B.56A and requires a written agreement between a buyer and their agent before any showing, including live virtual tours. If no showing happens, the agreement still has to be signed before an agent writes an offer on your behalf.

The point of the law is transparency. Before 2024, plenty of buyers toured homes for months without knowing who their agent legally worked for or how that agent got paid. Now both of those things are in writing before you ever step inside a house. That part is a win for buyers, even when the first ask feels abrupt.

What the law does not do is force you into a long commitment with a stranger. That part is up to each brokerage, and it's where the Pre-Touring Agreement comes in.

What Does the Pre-Touring Agreement Say?

Our Pre-Touring Agreement is one page. It's the RE/MAX Concepts short-form version of the buyer agreement, and it covers three things:

• A touring window. You and your agent agree on a number of days, up to 10. In practice, most of ours cover a single day, the tour you requested. During that window we can show you any home you want to see, not just the one that started the conversation.
• Compensation terms, in writing. Iowa law requires this. The agreement states what our fee would be if you buy a home we show you, and it states plainly that commissions are not set by law and are fully negotiable. You owe nothing for the showings themselves.
• A clean exit. When the window ends, you're done. No automatic renewal, no cancellation fee, no obligation to keep working with us.

If you decide to buy a home we showed you, or you want to keep house hunting with us past the touring window, we move to a full Exclusive Buyer Agreement, typically 120 days. That's a separate conversation and a separate signature. Nothing rolls over without you choosing it.

The law says you have to sign before a showing. It doesn't say you have to commit to an agent you just met.

What Does It Cost to Sign One?

Nothing. There's no fee to sign, no fee for the showings, and no fee when the window ends. The only scenario where compensation enters the picture is if you purchase a home we showed you during the term, and even then, seller-paid compensation gets applied to your obligation first. Since 2024, every single HWA transaction has had the buyer agent fee covered by the seller.

One more detail worth knowing upfront: if the home you want to see is one of our own listings, that's dual agency under Iowa law, and it requires an additional disclosure and agreement before we proceed. We'll tell you that before the showing, not after.

When Don't You Need a Signed Agreement in Iowa?

You can walk into any open house without signing anything. The agent hosting is there for the seller, not for you. A listing agent can also unlock a door for an unrepresented buyer and answer factual questions about the property without a buyer agreement in place.

The line gets crossed the moment an agent starts working for you: setting up private showings, advising you on what to offer, or writing and negotiating that offer. Those require a signed agreement, and any agent doing them without one is breaking Iowa law, which tells you something about how they'll handle the rest of your transaction.

What Happens After the Touring Window Ends?

One of three things. You liked how we worked and we sign a full Exclusive Buyer Agreement. You found the house during the window and we write the offer under a full agreement. Or it wasn't the right fit and we part ways with no hard feelings and no invoice.

We'll be straight with you about how this plays out, because we've signed hundreds of these. Some people tour with us once and we never hear from them again, and that's fine. That's what the form is for. The Pre-Touring Agreement isn't where the relationship gets built. It's the front door. The real decision comes at the Exclusive Buyer Agreement, and we'd rather you make that decision after watching us work than before.

Our buyer agent fee is 3% of the purchase price. We think you should see us schedule the showing, walk the property with you, and give you our honest read, including the problems, before you agree to that. Honest advice, even when it costs us the sale, only means something once you've seen it in a living room. If you'd like to know more about the people who'd be doing that walkthrough with you, meet our agents.

Frequently Asked Questions