The Minnesota buying-or-selling checklist
One page to work through before you sign with an agent. Print it, or email yourself a copy for your phone.
or
Email me one copy of the buying-or-selling checklist so I have it on my phone. We send the checklist once. You are not joining a list, we never sell your email, and no one will contact you.
Verify the license (10 minutes)
- Search the agent's name on our check-your-agent page for Commerce enforcement actions.
- Verify the license is Active on the state's lookup (pulseportal.com: Minnesota Department of Commerce, Real Estate board). Confirm the type: salesperson or broker.
- Salespersons must work under a broker. Ask which brokerage holds the license and search the brokerage name for enforcement actions too.
- If an appraisal is involved, check the appraiser's license and discipline status on our lookup; appraisers are state-credentialed as well.
Ask before you sign anything
- How will you be paid on my transaction, in dollars or percent, and who pays it? Get the answer in writing; compensation is negotiable.
- If I am buying: what does your buyer representation agreement commit me to, for how long, and how do I cancel it?
- Will you ever represent the other side of my transaction (dual agency)? What happens to your duties to me if that comes up?
- How many transactions did you close in my area in the last 12 months?
- Who else on your team will touch my transaction, and are they licensed?
- What happens if I find the house myself, or a buyer finds me?
Read before you sign
- Every blank on the representation agreement, filled in, before you sign it. An agreement with blanks is not done.
- The cancellation terms. Know exactly how you get out and what it costs.
- The compensation lines. If a number changed since the conversation, ask why.
- The agency disclosure form Minnesota requires agents to give you at the first substantive contact. If you never got one, that is worth asking about.
Keep for your records
- A copy of everything you sign, the day you sign it.
- The agent's full name, license number, and brokerage, written down.
- A dated copy of your license check and enforcement search results (the print button on our lookup does this).
Educational information from public sources, not legal advice about your situation. Deeper guides on commissions, dual agency, and representation agreements are in attorney review and will publish on the guides page once approved.