Wholesaling laws do vary by state — but that framing undersells what happened this year. Between March and August 2026, four states brought new wholesaling requirements into force, and a fifth had already started the previous October. If you wholesale across state lines, the rules you learned last year are not the rules you are operating under today.
This page covers what is actually in force, with a link to the official source for each. It is a monitoring summary, not legal advice — before you rely on any of it, confirm it with a real estate attorney licensed in the state you are working in.
What is in force right now
| State | Law | In force since |
|---|---|---|
| Maryland | HB 124 / SB 160 (ch. 508 & 509) | October 1, 2025 |
| Ohio | SB 155 | March 2, 2026 |
| Connecticut | HB 7287 / Public Act 25-168 | July 1, 2026 |
| Louisiana | HB 468 / Act 807 | August 1, 2026 |
| Missouri | SB 973 | August 28, 2026 |
Louisiana Act 807 — the most operationally disruptive
Louisiana's is the change most likely to break an existing process, because it puts money and a waiting period into the middle of your contract.
HB 468, filed by Rep. Troy Hebert, was adopted without opposition and became Act 807, enacting La. R.S. 37:1448.5. It applies to residential property of one to four dwelling units. In force since August 1, 2026, it requires you to:
- Disclose, prominently and in writing, that you intend to assign, transfer, or market your rights under the purchase agreement for financial gain
- Advise the seller to seek legal counsel before signing
- Give the seller a five-calendar-day right to cancel without penalty, recited on a mandatory notice
- Hold a deposit of at least 1% of the purchase price in escrow
- Wait — you cannot ask the seller to sign a cash sale, conveyance, or deed until the cancellation window closes
It also bars you from acting on the seller's behalf, claiming a licence or certification you do not hold, placing a lien or encumbrance on the property, or engaging in deceptive or unfair trade practices.
The penalty is the part to pay attention to: omit the required notice and the contract is void and terminable by the seller, who gets the deposit back. The Louisiana Real Estate Commission published the mandatory cancellation notice form on July 28, 2026 — use the current version from the Commission's site rather than a form you drafted yourself.
Ohio SB 155 — in force since March
Ohio SB 155 passed the state Senate unanimously in June 2025, was signed by Governor Mike DeWine on December 1, 2025, and took effect March 2, 2026. It requires wholesalers to clearly disclose their intention and business model when contracting with a property owner.
If you have been operating in Ohio on a pre-2026 process, that process has been out of date for five months.
Connecticut Public Act 25-168 — registration, not just disclosure
Connecticut folded its wholesaling requirements into a budget bill, HB 7287 / Public Act 25-168, in force since July 1, 2026. It is a step beyond disclosure: wholesalers must register with the Department of Consumer Protection. Sellers get a three-business-day window to cancel, and you cannot set a closing date more than 90 days after the contract is signed.
Registration matters operationally because it is a gate, not a form you file afterwards. There is no compliant way to sign first and register later.
Missouri SB 973 — the deadline in front of you
Missouri SB 973 was signed by the Governor on July 13, 2026 and takes effect August 28, 2026. Because it is the only one on this list that has not yet started binding, it is the one you can still prepare for rather than remediate.
Missouri's reported structure is the strictest in kind on this list, because the disclosure lands before the contract rather than alongside it — which is exactly the step that a same-day contract motion does not have room for. Read the enrolled text, or have counsel read it, before August 28 rather than after.
How to tell a real change from a recycled headline
This is the part most summaries get wrong, and it is worth more than any single rule above.
Aggregated "wholesaling laws by state" pages routinely re-date old laws as current-year news. Two live examples: North Dakota HB 1125 is a 2025 law (signed April 8, 2025, effective August 1, 2025), and Maryland HB 124 / SB 160 are 2025 chapters 508 and 509, effective October 1, 2025. Both get recycled as "2026" changes. If you plan around a law that has actually been binding for a year, you have been non-compliant for a year without knowing it.
Three habits that catch this:
- Check the effective date, not the headline date. Signed, passed, and in force are three different dates, and only the third one binds you.
- Follow the citation to the state source. If a page names a bill number, open the legislature's own page for it. A surprising number of bill numbers in circulation do not say what they are claimed to say.
- Re-check per session. Legislative sessions mostly run January to June. A state that was clear in March may not be in July.
What this means for how you operate
The common thread across all five states is that the contract is no longer the first step. Disclosure, a waiting period, escrowed money, or a registration all now sit ahead of or inside the signature, and the penalties attach to the contract itself — void, terminable, deposit returned. A process built around speed to contract is the process most exposed by this wave.
Practically:
- Know which states each of your buy-boxes actually touches, and check each one separately
- Keep the state-mandated form where your team will actually reach for it, and use the current version
- Build the waiting period into your timeline instead of treating it as an exception
- Re-check before each session's laws take effect, not after a deal goes sideways
Track wholesaling legislation by state with Revamp365
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Claim Your AccessSources
- Louisiana REALTORS®, "New Wholesaling Law - Effective August 1" — https://www.larealtors.org/new-wholesaling-law-effective-august-1
- Louisiana Real Estate Commission, "New Wholesaling Residential Real Property Mandatory Cancellation Notice Now Available" (July 28, 2026) — https://lrec.gov/blog/new-wholesaling-residential-real-property-mandatory-cancellation-notice-now-available
- Louisiana Legislature, HB 468 House Summary of Senate Amendments — https://www.legis.la.gov/legis/ViewDocument.aspx?d=1472267
- Marshall Dennehey, "New Ohio Law Targets Real Estate Wholesaling Practices" — https://www.marshalldennehey.com/thought-leadership/new-ohio-law-targets-real-estate-wholesaling-practices
- Ohio Broker Direct, "Ohio's New Wholesaling Law Takes Effect March 2026" — https://ohiobrokerdirect.com/ohios-new-wholesaling-law-takes-effect-march-2026-here-is-what-both-investors-and-homeowners-need-to-know/
- Leonine Public Affairs, "New State Laws for Real Estate Wholesaling in 2025" — https://leoninepublicaffairs.com/new-state-laws-for-real-estate-wholesaling-in-2025/
This article is a summary for monitoring purposes and is not legal advice. Confirm any requirement with a real estate attorney licensed in the relevant state before relying on it.
