By Gren · September 18, 2026
Louisiana's wholesaling law has been in force since August 1, 2026. Act 807 of 2026 — HB 468, by Rep. Hebert — added R.S. 37:1448.5 and three new definitions to the license law. It covers residential property of one to four units, and it reaches assignments and simultaneous closings, so the usual "we'll just double close" answer does not get you out of it.
The good news is that Louisiana did not require a license. The rest of it is a checklist, and the checklist is unusually mechanical. Five things have to be right. Get all five and you are fine. Miss one and the seller's cancellation right stops expiring.
One: the disclosure, before the seller signs
Before the seller signs anything, you give them a written disclosure, displayed prominently, that says three things: you intend to assign, transfer or sell your contract rights for financial gain; you are not the end buyer; and the seller should seek legal counsel.
The statute does not prescribe a font or a point size for this one. "Prominently displayed" is the standard, which means a reviewing lawyer gets to decide whether yours was. Do not bury it.
Model clause (our drafting, not statutory): Buyer is a wholesaler. Buyer is not the end buyer and intends to assign or resell its rights under this contract to a third party for a profit. Seller is advised to consult an attorney before signing.
Two: the LREC Mandatory Cancellation Notice, verbatim
This one is not yours to write. The Louisiana Real Estate Commission has published a Wholesaling Residential Real Property Mandatory Cancellation Notice and a matching Wholesaling Contract Cancellation Form. Use them as issued.
The notice goes conspicuously near the seller's signature line. Not attached at the back, not in the addendum stack. Next to where they sign.
Statutory notice (excerpt): "NOTICE REQUIRED BY LOUISIANA LAW … You, SELLER, may cancel this Contract at any time before 11:59 PM of ________ (Insert Date)." The wholesaler "CANNOT ask you to sign or have you sign any cash sale, conveyance or deed, or any other document until your right to cancel this Contract has ended."
That blank is yours to fill, correctly, every time. Fill it wrong and you have handed a seller a written argument that your notice was defective.
Three: five calendar days, running from the later signature
The seller can cancel for any reason, without penalty, until 11:59 PM on the date you wrote in — and that date has to be at least five calendar days after the later of the two signatures.
The later signature. Not the seller's. If you sign Monday and the seller signs Wednesday, the clock starts Wednesday. If the seller signs Monday and your signer is traveling until Thursday, it starts Thursday. Date every signature line, because on the day someone argues about this, the file is the only witness.
Five days is short by the standards of the new wholesaler statutes. It is still five days in which your seller can walk for free, so do not spend money you cannot lose during the window.
Four: earnest money of at least one percent
The deposit has to be at least 1% of the purchase price, held either in the seller's account or in escrow at a federally insured institution.
This is the provision that ends a certain kind of Louisiana deal. A $10 binder on a $180,000 house does not comply — you need $1,800, in a real account, not in your operating account. Price your deal flow accordingly: that is real capital tied up across every live contract at once.
Five: no deed inside the window
The seller cannot sign a deed, cash sale, act of conveyance, or any other such document until the cancellation right has ended. Check your dates against the closing date, and check them again if a closing gets pulled forward.
A closing accelerated into the cancellation window is the easiest violation here to commit by accident and the hardest to explain afterwards.
What it costs to miss one
Here is the mechanism that matters. If the disclosures are missing or you otherwise violate the section, the seller may cancel at any time before title transfers — and keep the deposit.
So the five-day window is not really a five-day window. It is five days if you complied. If you did not, it is an open-ended right that survives your marketing, your assignment, your end buyer's inspection period, and everything else right up to the moment the act of sale is passed. Your one percent goes with it.
On top of that, violations are unfair trade practices, enforceable by the Attorney General and by LREC. The statute also prohibits a set of behaviors that are worth reading as a list of things not to do: posing as the seller's advisor, claiming a license or certification you do not hold, recording liens or clouding title, and deceptive practices generally.
One open item, flagged honestly: a summary of the Senate amendments refers to a civil penalty of up to $5,000 per violation. We have not confirmed that figure against the enrolled Act 807, so do not quote it as settled. The cancellation-plus-deposit exposure is confirmed and is the bigger number on most deals anyway.
Corrections worth making
Two things floating around about Louisiana need fixing.
The first is a stale one. Some state-by-state trackers still describe Louisiana as having no recent statutory change and no specific wholesaler disclosure. That was accurate before this summer and is not accurate now. Act 807 has been in effect since August 1, 2026.
The second is a moving-target problem. HB 468 as introduced carried a 14-day cancellation period. The enacted law uses five. Anything written from the introduced version overstates the window by nine days. That cuts oddly: running a fourteen-day window is safely past the requirement, but telling sellers they have two weeks when your contract says five is a representation your contract does not support. Fix the language.
Licensing and marketing
No license. No registration. Act 807 did not create either, and it added no rules about how your ads have to be worded.
The general license law under R.S. 37:1430 et seq. still applies, and it works the ordinary way: selling or marketing property for others for a fee requires an LREC license. So market your contract interest, not the house. And note that the statute makes two of those marketing sins explicit for wholesalers — you may not hold yourself out as acting for the seller, and you may not claim a license or certification you do not have. "I'm basically an agent, just without the commission" is now a statutory violation, not just a bad line.
The short version
Disclosure before signing. LREC notice next to the signature. Five calendar days from the later signature, written into the blank. One percent in escrow. No deed until the window closes. Comply and the seller's right to walk expires on schedule; do not, and it lives until title transfers, deposit included.
Louisiana is workable — it is a paperwork state, not a licensing state. Just underwrite for the fact that every live contract now ties up one percent and five free days. Run the numbers with the free MAO calculator before you commit the deposit, then use the LREC forms exactly as published.
Cut the noise. Catch the signal.
— Gren
This is general information about Louisiana 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 Louisiana real estate attorney. Citations: La. R.S. 37:1448.5 (Act 807 of 2026); La. R.S. 37:1431(35)–(37); LREC Wholesaling Residential Real Property Mandatory Cancellation Notice.