# Running an open home in Queensland: the rules on the agent's side
What a Queensland agent answers for at an open home or private inspection: the seller's instructions, price talk, the visitor register and entry to a tenanted home.
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The open home is the most visible half hour of an agent's week. A sign goes out on the footpath, the front door is propped open, and for a short while anyone may walk through somebody else's house. To a visitor it looks informal. To the agent holding the clipboard it is a piece of regulated work: the home belongs to a client, the words said about it and about its price are representations made in trade, the names written at the door are personal information, and if a tenant lives there the door may only be opened at all on terms set by tenancy law.
This guide looks at inspections from the agent's side. It covers the open home, where the property is shown to all comers at an advertised time, and the private inspection, where one buyer or one group is shown through by appointment. It is built from what the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), the Residential Tenancies Authority (RTA), the Property Occupations Regulation 2014 and the Real Estate Institute of Queensland (REIQ) have published, and it says where those sources stop.
48 hrsminimum notice to show a buyer through a tenanted home
2 hrsentry window an entry notice must state
3 salescomparable sales behind a recommended auction reserve
Sources: RTA page on open houses and viewings, RTA entry and privacy fact sheet, Office of Fair Trading page on auctioning a property.
## Two kinds of inspection, one set of duties
The conduct standards that apply to agents create no separate legal category called an open home. Where the owner lives in the property, or it stands empty, the inspection is simply part of the service the agent was appointed to provide, and its form is a matter between the agent and the seller: how often, at what times, by appointment only or open to everyone.
What does not change with the format is the standard of conduct. The Property Occupations Regulation 2014 sets conduct standards for property agents and real estate salespersons in Part 5, and those standards follow the agent through the front door. The agent must not accept an appointment that puts their duty or interests in conflict with the client's interests (section 18). Before listing, the agent must take reasonable steps to find out or verify who owns the property and how it is described (section 19), and the facts material to the sale (section 20). And the agent must act in accordance with the client's instructions, unless doing so would be contrary to the conduct standards or unlawful (section 22).
The picture changes sharply only when the occupant is a tenant. Then a second body of rules applies, administered by the RTA, and those rules do distinguish between an open house and an individual viewing. The second half of this guide deals with them.
## Whose instructions the agent follows at the door
Section 22 is the provision that governs most of what happens at an inspection. The seller decides whether the home is opened to the public or shown by appointment, which rooms are shown, whether the shed is unlocked and whether a neighbour may be told the asking price. The agent's task is to carry those instructions out, and the regulation says in terms that price offers must be handled in line with the client's written instructions.
The same section carries its own limit. Instructions are followed unless they are contrary to the conduct standards or unlawful. An article published by the REIQ on 4 February 2020, written by the then head of the Office of Fair Trading, put the point in a sentence that agents still quote: agents follow their client's instructions, but must not follow them where it is unlawful to do so. A seller who asks the agent to tell visitors something untrue about the home, or to advertise a figure the seller would never accept, is asking for something section 22 does not require.
For an owner-occupied home, the practical consequence is that the terms of the inspection are best settled before the first Saturday, in writing, with the appointment. An agent who can point to a written instruction about open homes, private viewings and what may be said on price is in a clear position if the campaign is later questioned by either side.
## What the agent may say about the property
Visitors ask questions an advertisement never answers. How old is the roof, where is the boundary, has the deck been approved, why is the owner selling. Section 20 of the regulation is the standard against which the answers are measured. It requires reasonable steps to find out or verify the facts material to the sale before the property is listed, and again afterwards as circumstances require, and it requires the agent to avoid error, omission, exaggeration or misrepresentation.
The standard is not perfect knowledge. It is reasonable steps, taken before the listing and repeated when something changes.
On that reading, an agent who has not verified a fact is on firmer ground saying so than guessing. The regulation asks for verification, and an answer along the lines of "that has not been confirmed, and here is who holds the record" is consistent with it. So is correcting an answer given at an earlier inspection once better information arrives, since the duty continues after listing.
Section 19 sits behind all of this. An agent who has taken reasonable steps to verify ownership and the property description before listing has already settled two of the questions buyers ask most often: who is actually selling, and exactly what land is being sold.
## Price talk when the home is sold by private treaty
The question asked more than any other at an open home is what the seller wants. The Office of Fair Trading's guidance on property advertising gives the rules an agent's answer has to fit.
Licensed property agents, the OFT says, must not engage in misleading or deceptive conduct. It treats it as false advertising to set a property price knowing the vendor will not sell the property for that price. Giving buyers a false impression about the price a seller will accept has a name in the guidance: bait advertising.
The guidance is specific about one common formula. If an agent uses an "offers over" price, that price should be the minimum amount the vendor is willing to accept. The reference point is a document the agent already holds: Form 6, the appointment under the Property Occupations Act 2014, which records the vendor's price instructions. The OFT adds that it is considered a false or misleading representation if the property agent knows the seller provided incorrect details on the form.
The 2020 article published by the REIQ explains why the regulator cares. The OFT had received complaints from buyers who offered above an "offers over" figure, were refused, and found that the property had never been within their reach. The article said the OFT carries out compliance checks that compare advertised "offers over" prices with the Form 6 for the same property, and takes enforcement action where the two do not match.
The law behind the guidance is the Australian Consumer Law, which prohibits false or misleading representations about the sale of land. The OFT's page gives the maximum penalties as up to $2.5 million per breach for an individual and, for a corporation, the greater of $100 million, three times the value of the benefit obtained, or 30 per cent of annual turnover during the breach period.
For the conversation at the door, the consequence is simple. What an agent says to a visitor about price is held to the same standard as the advertisement. A spoken "they would look at anything over" a stated figure is an "offers over" price in every sense that matters to the guidance, and it should match the seller's recorded minimum.
## Price talk when the home is going to auction
An auction campaign reverses the position. The OFT's page on auctioning a property says an agent must not give buyers a price guide for a property being sold by auction, because a guide can influence the eventual sale price, intentionally or not, and can amount to misleading conduct.
What an agent may say about price at an inspectionBy method of sale, as the Office of Fair Trading describes it
Question from a visitor
Private treaty
Auction
What is the price?
The advertised price, set on the seller's instructions.
No price guide may be given.
What does "offers over" mean?
The figure should be the least the vendor will accept.
Does not apply.
Is there a reserve, and what is it?
Does not apply.
That a reserve exists may be confirmed; the amount may not be revealed.
Can I see the comparable sales?
No specific rule in the OFT guidance.
Only with the vendor's written consent.
Source: Office of Fair Trading pages on property advertising and on auctioning a property.
The auction page lists what may not be revealed: the reserve price, although its existence may be confirmed, an estimate of the property's value, and a price range intended to influence bidding. One narrow exception is written into the guidance. Price data may be passed to an electronic listing provider so that the property appears under the right search filter, on condition that it is not displayed to the public and that the listing carries a statement that the property is being sold by auction or without a price and a price guide cannot be provided.
Buyers at an auction open home often ask instead for recent sales. Here the OFT's page draws a line an agent needs to know. When an agent recommends a reserve to a seller, the agent must give the seller a written comparative market analysis that compares at least 3 similar properties sold within 5 kilometres in the last 6 months, or a written explanation of how the market value was assessed if such sales are not available. That document belongs to the seller's side of the transaction. A copy may be given to a potential bidder only with the vendor's written consent.
Auction campaigns
No price guide means no guide at the door either
The Office of Fair Trading's rule against price guides for auction properties is not limited to advertisements. An agent asked at an open home what an auction property is expected to fetch has, on the regulator's guidance, no figure and no range to offer.
## The visitor register and the details it holds
An inspection register, the list of names and phone numbers taken at the door, is a collection of personal information, and it has drawn attention. Real Estate Business reported on 5 March 2026 that the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, the federal privacy regulator, had begun what the article called its first-ever privacy compliance sweep, aimed at businesses that collect personal information face to face, with real estate one of six sectors under review. According to the article the sweep looks at whether a business's privacy policy reflects what it actually does, and penalties for non-compliance can reach $66,000.
The article, a contributed piece by a security analyst, describes the scene every agent knows: prospective tenants or buyers sign in, and an agent may ask for identification. It names the habits that create exposure: paper sign-in sheets left on a kitchen bench, spreadsheets emailed between staff, copies of identity documents kept indefinitely. It suggests that an agency's policy state clearly what information is collected at open homes, and that collection be proportionate and necessary.
Those are a commentator's suggestions, not a regulator's rules, and this guide reports them as such. The sourced point is narrower: the open home register is the kind of in-person collection the federal regulator has chosen to examine, and the question it asks is whether practice at the door matches the agency's own published policy.
An auction adds a second record with firmer rules. The OFT's auction page says every bidder must register before the auction starts, with valid identification, and that the bidder register is confidential. Bidders' identities are not disclosed during the auction, and afterwards only for the purposes the rules allow, such as completing the sale. An agent who runs open homes through a campaign and then the auction itself therefore holds two lists about many of the same people, kept for different purposes under different rules.
## When a tenant lives there: consent comes first
Everything above assumes the seller controls access. Where the home is rented, the tenant's right to quiet enjoyment sits between the agent and the front door. The REIQ's article of 18 August 2020 on selling tenanted property cites section 183 of the Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act 2008, which requires the lessor to take reasonable steps to ensure the tenant has quiet enjoyment of the premises.
The RTA's page on open houses and viewings states the central rule in one line: an open house can only be held if the tenant agrees in writing. The RTA's entry and privacy fact sheet applies the same rule to an on-site auction.
The RTA's page then describes how the agreement should be reached. The property manager or owner should negotiate a suitable time with the tenant and try to minimise any disruption to the tenant's quiet enjoyment of the property. Entry must be at a reasonable time, and not on a Sunday, a public holiday, or before 8am or after 6pm on any other day, unless the tenant agrees. The tenant should be given reasonable notice of the time and date of any open house. The RTA recommends a mutual agreement about when the open house, or open houses, will be held, recorded in writing.
Two details matter to a selling agent planning a campaign. The first is that the classic Sunday open home is, in a tenanted property, a time the RTA says requires the tenant's agreement. The second is that consent is the tenant's to give or withhold. The REIQ's article accepts this plainly: the alternative to an open house is inspection by appointment, and it suggests agents work with tenants, noting that some are more willing where the owner offers a gesture such as a voucher for a nearby cafe during the inspection.
## Private inspections of a tenanted home
If the tenant declines open houses, the RTA's page says the property manager may arrange individual viewings instead. These do not need consent, but they do need notice in a prescribed form.
Showing a tenanted home to one buyerThe sequence set out in RTA material
Notice of intention to sellForm 10 is given to the tenant before, or with, the first entry notice.
Entry noticeForm 9 is given at least 48 hours ahead and states a two-hour period for the entry.
Copies to the managing agentA selling agent from another office gives the renting agent a copy of both forms.
The viewingEntry happens inside the stated period, with the buyer accompanied.
The next viewingA new notice for each entry, after a reasonable time since the last one.
Each step has a source. The fact sheet says that, to show a prospective purchaser through, a Notice of lessor's intention to sell premises (Form 10) must have been issued before, or with, the entry notice. The entry notice is Form 9, or Form R9 for rooming accommodation. It must specify a two-hour period during which the agent intends to enter, and the agent must enter during that period. The same Sunday, public holiday and 8am to 6pm limits apply as for an open house, unless the tenant agrees otherwise.
Two further limits come from the RTA's page and from a notice the RTA published on 25 August 2021. A separate notice must be given for each entry, so a morning of four appointments is not covered by one form unless they fall within the one stated period. And viewings may only be arranged after a reasonable amount of time has lapsed since the last one. Neither source turns "reasonable" into a number of days. The REIQ's article draws the practical conclusion: a Form 9 cannot be issued over and over without restraint, because the quiet enjoyment duty still applies.
Agents who learned these rules some years ago should check the notice period. The RTA's current page on open houses and viewings says an entry notice for an individual viewing requires at least 48 hours' notice. Older material still in circulation gives a shorter period: the RTA's entry and privacy fact sheet, version 12 of December 2017, lists 24 hours for showing a prospective tenant or purchaser, and so do the REIQ's 2020 article and the RTA's 2021 notice.
The current page is the one to follow, and an office template or a training handout that still says 24 hours has been overtaken.
## Selling agent and managing agent: two offices, one tenant
A rented home often has two agencies attached to it: one managing the tenancy, another appointed to sell. The RTA's fact sheet deals with this directly. Where the selling agent is not the managing agent, the selling agent must give the entry notice to the tenant and a copy to the renting agent, and must also give the renting agent a copy of the Form 10.
The RTA's page adds a rule about presence. The property manager or owner must accompany prospective tenants or buyers who are viewing the property, unless the tenant has agreed otherwise. A tenanted home is therefore not one where a buyer may be handed a key or left to walk through alone.
The REIQ's article addresses a friction that arises between the two offices: a selling agent who needs the tenancy details and a property manager who will not release them. Its answer is that the owner should already hold the tenancy agreement (Form 18a) and can ask the managing agent for it and pass it to the selling agent. It suggests asking the owner for the entry condition report as well.
## Photographs and the tenant's belongings
Marketing a tenanted home has its own rule, and it reaches the open home through the brochure handed out at the door. The RTA says photos used to market the property should not show the tenant's possessions unless the tenant agrees in writing. The REIQ's article identifies the provision as section 203 of the Act and notes that it covers advertising online, in newspapers and in brochures. Both the REIQ and the RTA's 2021 notice spell out that possessions means items inside and outside the home, with personal items, furniture, cars and boats given as examples.
The REIQ's suggested practice is to obtain written consent and to email the final images to the tenant for approval before they are published. The RTA's 2021 notice sets out what a tenant can do if the rule is ignored: issue a notice to remedy breach asking for the photos to be removed, or ask the RTA to investigate.
## If a tenant objects
A tenant who believes entry rules or quiet enjoyment have been breached has a graduated set of responses in the RTA's material. The fact sheet suggests raising it with the lessor or agent first, then issuing a Notice to remedy breach (Form 11). The RTA offers free dispute resolution, requested on Form 16, and its 2021 notice says a tenant may ask it to investigate alleged unlawful entry. The REIQ's article warns of the outcome that hurts the seller most: a tenant who considers quiet enjoyment breached may give a Notice of intention to leave (Form 13), ending the rental income in the middle of the campaign.
The RTA closes its 2021 notice with advice that applies to every part of this guide: all decisions, arrangements, consent and communications should be documented in writing.
> At an owner-occupied home the agent opens the door on the seller's instructions. At a rented home, the tenant's written agreement decides whether there is an open home at all.