Guides / Buyer-Agent Agreements / South Dakota

Buyer-Agent Agreements in South Dakota

South Dakota has NOT passed its own state statute codifying buyer-agent representation agreement requirements comparable to Texas's SB 1968 or California's AB 2992. This is confirmed by NAR's own official "Written Buyer Agreements: State Groupings & Exemplar Language" report (August 2024), which lists the 27 states that had pre-existing statutory buyer-broker agreement laws in effect as of the settlement — South Dakota is not on that list (the 27 are: Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin). No South Dakota legislative bill addressing buyer representation agreements was found in the 2025 or 2026 sessions (the one initially plausible lead, HB 1173 of 2025, was actually about road improvement assessment caps and is unrelated to real estate agency). South Dakota's existing codified law, SDCL Chapter 36-21A (Real Estate Licensing), and its implementing administrative rules (ARSD 20:69:16) require brokers to provide the "Real Estate Relationships Disclosure" form and written agency disclosures under SDCL 36-21A-147, but this is a pre-existing, general agency-disclosure framework — it does not independently mandate a written buyer representation/compensation agreement before touring a home. Instead, South Dakota real estate licensees comply with the requirement to have a signed buyer representation agreement in place before touring homes purely because it is now mandatory under NAR's nationwide MLS Participant Rule (effective August 17, 2024, per the NAR settlement), just as in New York. South Dakota therefore falls into the same category as New York: no dedicated state statute, reliance on the national settlement/MLS rule.

Requirements

No South Dakota-specific statute exists mandating a written buyer representation agreement; the operative rule is the national NAR/MLS Participant Rule effective August 17, 2024.
Under the NAR settlement/MLS rule (as applied via South Dakota MLSs and REALTOR-affiliated brokerages), an MLS participant working with a buyer must enter into a written buyer representation agreement before touring any home (in person or via live virtual tour).
The written agreement must contain a specific, conspicuous disclosure of the amount or rate of the buyer-broker's compensation, stated as an objective figure (flat fee, percentage, or hourly rate) rather than open-ended.
The agreement must include a term prohibiting the buyer's broker from receiving compensation from any source that exceeds the amount/rate agreed to with the buyer.
The agreement must conspicuously state that broker compensation is fully negotiable and not set by law or by any MLS.
Independent of the settlement, South Dakota's pre-existing SDCL Chapter 36-21A and ARSD 20:69:16 require licensees to give buyers/sellers a written 'Real Estate Relationships Disclosure' describing available agency relationships (single agency, limited/dual agency, appointed agency) before discussing confidential objectives, but this disclosure obligation predates and is separate from the settlement's written-agreement-before-touring mandate.

Facts on this page reflect research current as of 2026-07-05. Programs, rates, and laws change — confirm current figures with the relevant state agency before relying on them.

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