The lockbox code worked fine. It was the piece of paper waiting on the kitchen counter that caught the buyer off guard — a one-page agreement, ready to sign, before she'd even walked past the entryway.
That moment is playing out at showings all over Denver now. If you're touring homes for the first time in a while, expect your agent to bring a buyer agency agreement to that very first appointment, not the closing table.
Here's what changed. A national settlement involving the National Association of Realtors — often called the NAR settlement — took effect in August 2024. It requires agents who work with buyers through the MLS to have a written agreement in place before touring a home. That agreement has to spell out what the agent will do for you and how much they're paid.
In practice, most agents have this signed prior to the first showing or else bring some version of this paperwork to the first showing, even if it only covers that one house for that one day. It's a way of being upfront: here's what I do, here's how I get paid, here's what you're agreeing to. Open houses are still the exception. If you wander into one on over the weekend, no agreement is needed for that.
The terms are worth reading closely, and they vary more than people expect. Some agreements cover a single showing. This is a nice way to kick this off if the buyer and agent don't know each other just yet. Other agreements run for weeks or months and are more common once both parties determine they'd like to work together. None of these versions is automatically better than another — it depends on how ready you are to commit to working with that particular agent.
For sellers, this same settlement changed things too. Commission is no longer something buyers assume gets baked quietly into the price. It's a separate, negotiated line item now, which means sellers and their agents are having more direct conversations about what they're offering to cover.
If you're buying in Denver this fall, don't be surprised by the paper on the counter. Read it before you sign. Ask how long the buyer agency agreement lasts, whether it covers one house or every house you tour together, and who's paying the commission — you, the seller, or some combination worked out in the contract. It isn't a trap. It's a conversation that used to happen quietly after the fact, now happening out loud before you've seen the closets.
If you're getting ready to start touring and want someone to walk you through what you're signing before you sign it, that's exactly what I'm here for!
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