By Gren · September 18, 2026
Kentucky did not write a wholesaling law. It wrote eleven words into the definition of brokerage, and those eleven words did more damage to the standard wholesaling model than most of the disclosure statutes passed since.
Here they are, from KRS 324.010(1)(b). Real estate brokerage now includes:
advertising for sale an equitable interest in a contract for the purchase of real property between a property owner and a prospective purchaser
That is your assignment. Advertising it is brokerage. Brokerage requires a license. Effective June 29, 2023.
No threshold, no form, no clock
Kentucky is unusual in what it doesn't have, and that shapes how you think about it.
There is no disclosure statute for wholesalers. Nothing you have to hand the seller, no prescribed sentence, no font size.
There is no cooling-off period. The seller gets no statutory right to cancel a wholesale contract.
There is no registration. Nothing to file with anyone.
And there is no volume threshold. This is the one that catches people coming from Illinois or Virginia, where the rule is a count of deals per year. Kentucky has no count. One advertised deal is enough. There is no free first one.
So the entire Kentucky compliance question collapses to a single word in the statute: advertising. Everything you do before you advertise is unregulated by HB 62. The moment you advertise the contract, you are either licensed, working through someone who is, or committing a crime.
What counts as advertising
Broadly, and it is not a close call.
Email blasts. Text blasts. Buyer lists. Social media posts. Your website. Deal-sharing platforms. Signs. If it is a public or semi-public offer of your contract interest, it is advertising.
The one place where there is real uncertainty is the other end of the spectrum: a private, unadvertised assignment to a buyer you already had a relationship with. On the statute's plain words, that is not advertising. But I have found no case and no agency opinion testing it, so treat it as an untested position rather than a safe harbor, and get a Kentucky attorney's read before you build volume on it.
Two related traps, both from KRS 324.020:
- Unlicensed people may not hold themselves out as brokers or sales associates, or use terms implying licensure. Calling yourself a "real estate professional" in a Kentucky ad is its own problem.
- Brokers may not compensate unlicensed persons. So the workaround where a licensed broker runs your marketing and you pay an unlicensed bird dog out of the assignment fee runs into the same section from the other side.
The three ways to do this legally
The Kentucky Real Estate Commission's July 2023 minutes record complaints about unlicensed persons advertising equity interests in contracts, and note the compliance options. There are three, and they are genuinely all of them.
One: get a KREC license. The direct answer. You advertise your own contract interests as a licensee. Education and exam requirements come from KREC — I have seen specific hour counts quoted in wholesaling write-ups and I have not verified any of them, so get those numbers from the Commission.
Two: market through a licensed Kentucky broker. The deal is yours; the advertising runs through someone licensed to do it. Get the broker agreement in writing and the license number in the file. Do not paper this as a handshake, because the whole point of the arrangement is that it is documented.
Three: double close. Take title first, then sell property you own. Once you hold title, you are not advertising an equitable interest in someone else's purchase contract — you are selling your house. Kentucky's amendment is aimed specifically at the equitable interest, so acquiring the real one gets you out from under it. Just make sure the first deed actually recorded and funded before you market. An intention to double close is not a double close.
What is not on the list: assigning while advertising and hoping the volume is low enough to go unnoticed. There is no volume that is low enough, because there is no threshold.
What it costs
KRS 324.990. Unlicensed brokerage is a Class A misdemeanor for a first offense and a Class D felony for any later offense. The court may add a fine of $100 to $1,000, or up to six months in jail, plus the commission received.
And this line matters more than the numbers: each transaction is a separate offense. So the escalation to felony is not theoretical for anyone running deal flow. Deal one is the misdemeanor. Deal two is the felony.
Where the write-ups get Kentucky wrong
The general framing you will find — HB 62, KRS 324, 2023 — is correct as far as it goes. It does not go far.
- No effective date. Almost nobody gives one. The law took effect June 29, 2023 (2023 Ky. Acts ch. 84).
- No subsection cites. "KRS 324" is not a citation you can act on. The operative provisions are KRS 324.010(1)(b) (advertising an equitable interest is brokerage) and KRS 324.020(1)(b) (it is unlawful for an unlicensed person to do it).
- "It's a misdemeanor." Only the first time. A subsequent offense is a Class D felony, the fine includes the commission you received, and each transaction counts separately.
- "Civil fines" and "title companies will refuse to close." Neither is in the statute. Title companies may well decline a file, but that is a business practice, not a legal consequence, and mixing the two makes it harder to see the actual criminal exposure.
- Pre-license education hours get quoted with confidence and I could not verify them. Unconfirmed.
One more: you may see a link to a June 15, 2023 KREC website statement on HB 62. That PDF now returns a 404, so I cannot vouch for what it said. The July 20, 2023 Commission minutes are retrievable and confirm the Commission's enforcement interest.
Paperwork worth keeping anyway
Kentucky requires no disclosure, which is not a reason to run a thin file. Keep an assignment clause in the purchase contract, an assignment agreement consistent with it, and a seller acknowledgment. This clause is best practice, not statute:
Model clause: Seller acknowledges that Buyer is purchasing for its own account, does not represent Seller, is not acting as Seller's real estate licensee, and may assign this Agreement to a third party for a fee that Seller will not receive. Any advertising of Buyer's interest in this Agreement will be conducted only by or through a Kentucky-licensed real estate broker.
That last sentence is doing real work. It tells a seller, a buyer, and eventually a regulator that you knew where the line was.
The short version
Advertising an equitable interest is brokerage in Kentucky. One deal is enough. Get licensed, market through a broker, or take title first — and if you do none of those, you are looking at a misdemeanor that turns into a felony on the next deal, with each transaction counted on its own.
The spread has to survive a broker in the middle or a second closing. Run it honestly with the free MAO calculator before you pick your path.
Cut the noise. Catch the signal.
— Gren
This is general information about Kentucky law as of September 2026, not legal advice. Statutes change and facts differ. Before you rely on any of it for a specific deal, talk to a Kentucky real estate attorney. Citations: KRS 324.010(1)(b); KRS 324.020(1)(b); KRS 324.990; 2023 Ky. Acts ch. 84 (HB 62).