North Carolina: buyer-agreement requirements.

This page lists what North Carolina requires, at the state level, before a licensee represents a buyer: who regulates real-estate licensees, whether a written buyer agreement is required by state law or rule, the statute or rule that says so, and whether the state mandates an agency-disclosure form or publishes an approved agreement form.

It is built for broker-owners and transaction coordinators who need the state rule in one place before setting office policy. Read it alongside your brokerage's own forms and your broker of record's guidance — the written-agreement question became a national practice issue in 2024, but the rule that binds you is your state's, and it is the state rule this page cites.

North Carolina, field by field.

Regulating authority

North Carolina Real Estate Commission (NCREC)

Written agreement required by state law

Yes

Statute or rule

21 NCAC 58A .0104 (Agency Agreements and Disclosure). Rule text read via the North Carolina Office of Administrative Hearings rule publication (reports.oah.state.nc.us) and oah.nc.gov.

Agency disclosure form

Yes — mandatory. At first substantial contact with a prospective buyer, the broker must provide the NCREC publication 'Working with Real Estate Agents,' set forth the broker's name and license number on it, review it with the buyer, and determine whether the broker will act as the buyer's agent. If first substantial contact occurs by telephone or other electronic means where that is impractical, the publication must be transmitted at the earliest opportunity thereafter and in no event later than three days from first substantial contact.

State-approved form available

Yes — mandatory use

Notes. Two different deadlines live in one rule, and mixing them up is the classic North Carolina error. (1) 'Every agreement for brokerage services between a broker and a buyer or tenant shall be express and shall be in writing and signed by the parties thereto not later than the time one of the parties makes an offer to purchase, sell, rent, lease, or exchange real estate to another.' (2) BUT 'every agreement between a broker and a buyer or tenant that seeks to bind the buyer or tenant for a period of time or to restrict the buyer's or tenant's right to work with other agents or without an agent shall be in writing and signed by the parties thereto from its formation.' So: an exclusive or term-limited buyer agreement must be written from day one; a genuinely non-exclusive, open-ended one can run to the offer. The rule also requires every written brokerage agreement to carry the non-discrimination provision set out in .0104 verbatim.