By Gren · September 17, 2026
Ohio changed the rules on March 2, 2026, and the change is more specific than most people realize. SB 155 added R.C. 5301.95 to the code, and unlike states that tell you what to communicate, Ohio tells you what the document says, what size the type is, who signs it, and when.
If you are wholesaling one-to-four unit residential property in Ohio, this is now a form exercise. Get the form right and you are fine. Get it wrong and the seller can walk at any point up to closing and take your earnest money with them.
What the statute covers
R.C. 5301.95(A) defines a wholesaler as anyone who, for compensation, enters a residential purchase contract either (i) as grantee and then assigns or novates it, or (ii) as grantor, without holding legal title, and then assigns or novates it. Residential means one to four dwelling units.
That second prong catches structures built precisely to avoid being called wholesaling. If you are on the sell side of a contract for a house you do not own, you are in the statute.
Two carve-outs. Assignments between blood relatives (individuals), and assignments to a parent, affiliate, or subsidiary under common control, fall outside the definition. If you rely on either, document the relationship. Nobody will take your word for it later.
The disclosure
Before a binding purchase contract exists, a wholesaler acting as grantee has to give the record owner a disclosure that is:
- A separate, stand-alone document. Not a clause buried in the purchase agreement. Its own piece of paper.
- Conspicuous — boldface, 12-point type minimum.
- In substantially the statutory form.
- Signed and dated by both the record owner and the wholesaler, dated on or before the purchase contract date.
That last one gets skipped constantly. Both parties sign, and until both have, the statute bars you from entering a binding contract at all. The disclosure is not something you hand over at signing. It is a gate you pass through first.
The prescribed wording
Ohio says the disclosure goes out "in substantially the following form," and then supplies the text. This is not a model clause I wrote. This is what the statute has:
The owner acknowledges that the person presenting this document is a wholesaler, as defined by section 5301.95 of the Revised Code ... A wholesaler is acting on the wholesaler's own behalf and does not represent the owner in this transaction. ... The wholesaler may assign the wholesaler's interest in the purchase contract to a third party without the owner's consent before closing. The wholesaler may charge a fee to the third-party buyer separately for profit. The agreed purchase price between the owner and wholesaler may be below market value and is conveyed voluntarily.
It closes with signature and date lines for the owner and the wholesaler.
Do not work from a summary of that, including this one. Pull the section text and compare your form against it word for word. A paraphrase that reads well is still a paraphrase, and "substantially the following form" is the kind of phrase that gets litigated by people who lost money.
What happens when the disclosure is missing
This is the part that should make you careful. Under R.C. 5301.95(C)(1), if the disclosure was not made, the record owner may cancel at any time before the close of escrow, without penalty. Not three days. Not seven. Until the deal closes.
And then the escrow or closing agent pays the wholesaler's earnest money to the owner within 30 days. Your money, to them. That is a design choice, not an accident.
No cancellation method is prescribed, so look for written notice to both the wholesaler and the escrow agent in any file where this comes up.
You cannot contract around it. Subsection (C)(2) makes the section non-waivable and any waiver void ab initio, reaching agreements executed, modified, or extended after March 2, 2026. You cannot rehabilitate an old form by amending it.
On top of that, (C)(3) makes a violation an unfair or deceptive act under R.C. 1345.02, the Consumer Sales Practices Act. The owner gets a private action with the remedies in R.C. 1345.09, and the Attorney General can enforce. A missed form is now a consumer-protection claim.
Where the popular summaries get Ohio wrong
Several widely circulated compliance write-ups describe this statute inaccurately. Four things to fix.
"Every Ohio wholesale contract carries a non-waivable three-business-day cancellation right." There is no three-day right anywhere in R.C. 5301.95. The owner may cancel only if the disclosure was not given, and if that is the case, the window runs until close of escrow. Do the form correctly and no cancellation right attaches at all.
"Earnest money is returned to the wholesaler." The opposite. The statute sends the wholesaler's earnest money to the record owner.
"The disclosure must contain six items, including your anticipated fee and language about the cancellation right." No. The statute prescribes form text, and that text contains no fee estimate and no cancellation notice. If you add an anticipated fee to satisfy a checklist you read online, you are now diverging from the prescribed form for no reason.
Omissions matter too. The commonly repeated versions leave out that both parties must sign and date before contracting, the blood-relative and affiliate exceptions, the grantor-side prong for people who never take title, and the AG and CSPA remedy.
For what it is worth, the effective date of March 2, 2026 and the separate bold 12-point document requirement do get reported correctly. Those parts you can trust.
Marketing and licensing
SB 155 contains no advertising provisions, no frequency threshold, and no registration requirement. Nothing to file, nothing to renew.
But R.C. Chapter 4735, the license law, did not go anywhere. Advertising or negotiating the sale of property you do not own can still be read as brokerage. I found no wholesaling safe harbor there, and no published Division of Real Estate guidance settling how it treats the marketing of assigned contracts. Until that exists, market the assignment of a purchase contract, not the house.
There is an MLS angle too. Columbus REALTORS MLS Rule 7.2 requires wholesalers as defined in R.C. 5301.95 to provide the statutory disclosures and show proof on request. Other Ohio MLSs may have similar rules, so check yours.
And because violations land under the Consumer Sales Practices Act, marketing that misstates ownership or price carries deceptive-practice exposure independently of the license question.
Red flags in a file
- A contract dated on or after 3/2/2026 with no disclosure.
- A disclosure signed after the contract.
- A disclosure that is not bold, or is under 12-point.
- Disclosure language folded into the contract body rather than standing alone.
- Any waiver of the section or its remedies. Void on arrival.
- An assignment agreement whose parties, property, or price do not match the purchase contract.
The short version
One to four units, assigned or novated for compensation. Separate bold 12-point disclosure in the statutory form, signed and dated by both of you, before you sign the contract. No fee estimate on it. No cancellation language on it. Do it right and the seller has no cooling-off period. Do it wrong and they can cancel until closing and keep your earnest money, with a CSPA claim behind it.
Ohio made the paperwork rigid, which is actually a gift: there is one right answer and you can check for it. Get your numbers right with the free MAO calculator, then go compare your disclosure form against the statute line by line.
Cut the noise. Catch the signal.
— Gren
This is general information about Ohio 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 an Ohio real estate attorney. Citations: Ohio Rev. Code §5301.95; Ohio Rev. Code §1345.02; Ohio Rev. Code §1345.09; Ohio Rev. Code Ch. 4735.